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THEY WERE REALLY OUT OF DOORS 



Grandpa’s Littfe Girls 
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COPYRIGHT 
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Contents 


1. 

Important News 



7 

II. 

A Surprise Picnic 



^7 

III. 

Jimmie in Danger 

- 

_ 

32 

IV. 

Getting Ready to Run Away 

- 

_ 

43 

V. 

The Trip to the Schoolhouse 

- 


5 ^ 

VI. 

The Runaways - - _ 


_ 

65 

VII. 

The First Week at School 

_ 


76 

VIII. 

A Difficult Lesson 



87 

IX. 

Initiated Into the “ J. F. F.” 

- 


97 

X. 

A “ U. S.” Party 

- 

- 

107 

XI. 

Jimmie Kills a Lynx - 

- 

- 

117 

XII. 

The Youngest Girl on the Team 

- 

125 

XIII. 

The End of the Term 

- 

- 

133 

XIV. 

A Skating Carnival - 

- 

- 

143 

XV. 

Lost on the River 

- 

- 

151 

XVI. 

Myrtle Green’s Surprise 

- 

- 

162 

XVII. 

An Overturned Boat - 

- 

- 

^73 

XVIII. 

Rose Mason’s Birthday 

- 

- 

185 


5 



Illustrations 


PAG* 

They Were Really Out of Doors . . , Frontispiece 

Pay Your Initiation Fee 99 

Up Went the Ball 128 / 

** Don’t be Frightened,” He Said I 59 

They Told Him the Story 187 / 


/ 

Grandpa’s Little Girls at School 


r : 


It 

;A: \ l' I '. 




Grandpa’s Little Girls 
at School 


CHAPTEE I 

IMPORTANT NEWS 

Mr. Eben Bean stood in the doorway of the big 
barn at Pine Tree farm and watched Sister and Lamb 
as they came running across the yard. 

“ Oh, Mr. Eben Bean,’’ exclaimed Lamb, breath- 
lessly, “ what do you think has happened ? ” 

Mr. Bean smiled and nodded. “ I guess I know,” 
he responded. “ Your father saw two deer feeding 
with the cattle in the lower pasture and he reckons 
they are the ones that you and Sister tamed, and that 
he set free last summer.” 

“ Oh, no,” said Sister, “ it is a great deal more im- 
portant than that.” 

“I want to know !” said Mr. Bean in apparent sur- 
prise. “ Well, then, have those foxes your pa let loose 
been snooping around here again after our young 
chickens ? ” 


7 


8 


Grandpa s Little Girls 

Both the little girls shook their heads. 

“ Worse than that,” whispered Sister. 

“ The Woody ear family ain’t burned out of house 
and home, be they ? ” questioned Mr. Bean. 

“ Mr. Eben Bean, it’s something about us,” an- 
nounced Lamb mournfully, “ something dreadful ! ” 

Mr. Bean took a new grip on his hoe handle and 
endeavored to look serious. 

“ What is it ? ” he inquired. “ Have you begun to 
cut your wisdom teeth at your age ? or what other 
trouble has come upon you ? ” 

“ It’s all because I’m ’most thirteen,” wailed Sister. 
“And because I’m almost eleven,” echoed Lamb. 

Mr. Bean shook his head. “We all have to grow 
old,” he responded. 

“ And they are going to send us away to school,” 
both the children exclaimed. 

“ I want to know,” said Mr. Bean. 

“Yes,” continued Sister, “my mother has been 
writing to a school that she went to when she was 
^iss Wilson’s school, and Miss Wilson says 
she will take us. Isn’t it dreadful ? ” 

“ And Grandmother Hewman thinks it is for our 
good,” said Lamb. 

Mr. Eben Bean looked very serious. “I’ve heard 


At School 


9 


something of this before,” he said slowly, “and I 
guess you feel about the way Abitha did when she 
went to school.” 

“ Did Miss Abitha ever go away to school ? ” in- 
quired Lamb in evident surprise. 

“Yes, indeed. How did you suppose she learned 
all that she knows ? ” said Mr. Bean. “ Yes, she went 
away to school for four years, and it beat all how 
much she learned. She used to come home every 
vacation, and had the best times a girl ever had, I 
guess. But she didn’t like the notion of going away 
at first.” 

“ But we can go to school to Miss Abitha,” insisted 
Lamb, “ she teaches us lovely things, and we have the 
nicest times.” 

“Well,” said Mr. Bean, “I guess, maybe, that 
Abitha is a little lacking in discipline. She’s apt to 
put off school for picnics ’most any time, ain’t she ? 
Seems to think that having a real good time is more 
important than learning the multiplication table,” and 
Mr. Bean chuckled as if amused at the remembrance 
of his daughter’s methods of teaching. 

“ But that won’t do at all,” he continued more seri- 
ously ; “ girls of your age must learn all sorts of things, 
and your mother knows just where to send you.” 


lo Grandpa s Gittle Girls 

“ But we don’t want to go,” they both exclaimed ; 
“ and Grandfather Newman thinks it’s foolish for us to 
go,” added Sister. 

Eben chuckled again. ‘‘I’ll wager he does,” he 
said ; “ he’ll miss you a sight ; we shall all miss you,” 
he added handsomely, “ but I guess it’s the right thing 
to do,” and Mr. Bean went back into the barn and 
left the two little girls. 

Sister looked at Lamb and exclaimed, “ There ! 
didn’t I tell you that all the grown-ups would say just 
the same thing. That’s just the way our father talks, 
and it’s the way Miss Abitha talks, and the way grand- 
mother talks.” 

“ Grandfather don’t,” Lamb reminded her. 

“ No, and he was wishing this very morning that I 
was a boy. He said, .‘Well, if you’d only been 
“ Peter ” I could have kept you at home.’ Isn’t it 
dreadful to have to go away from everything,” con- 
cluded Sister. 

“We won’t have to go for a whole month yet,” 
responded Lamb hopefully. “Mother said that she 
should go with us.” 

“ But she won’t stay with us,” said Constance. 

“ Mother says that there will be nice girls about our 
age,” continued Lamb. 


At School 


1 1 


“ Lamb Eunice Newman ! I should think you wanted 
to go to school. To go and leave this lovely place, 
and our mother and father, and grandfather and 
everybody,’’ declared Constance accusingly. 

“ No, I don’t. Sister,” asserted Lamb, “ but I s’pose 
we might as well make the best of it.” 

“I shan’t!” announced the elder sister; “I’ve 
made my mind up just what I’m going to do.” 

“ What ? ” questioned Lamb anxiously. 

“ That Miss Wilson who keeps the school wrote to 
mother that unless we began the term she could not 
take us until the next term. And mother says that 
we are to start so as to be at Newville a day or two 
before the term begins.” 

“Yes I ” said Lamb, breathlessly. 

“ Well, don’t you see if we don’t go in time to begin 
with the others Miss Wilson won’t have us until Jan- 
uary.” 

Lamb nodded, and Constance continued, “ I thought 
it all out last night and I have a lovely plan. The 
day before mother plans to take us to Newville we must 
run away and stay until after Miss Wilson’s school 
begins. Then we will come home.” 

“ But our mother won’t like it,” suggested Lamb. 

“ No-o,” said Sister ; “ perhaps she won’t at first ; 


12 


Grandpa s Gittle Girls 

but she said she hated to have us go, so maybe she 
will be pleased.” 

“ She won’t be pleased,” said Lamb ; “ and if we run 
away in September we will have to go in January.” 

“ Perhaps we won’t,” responded Sister hopefully ; 
“ perhaps I can think of something else by that time.” 

“ Well, where will we run to ? ” asked Lamb. “We 
will have to stay away two or three days.” 

“ Yes, a week, maybe,” answered Sister, “ and I 
know a lovely place to stay, but I shan’t tell you 
where, Lamb, till just the day we start, because you 
might forget and tell and spoil everything. But it’s 
a lovely place and it will be a good deal like one of 
Miss Abitha’s picnics, only longer.” 

Lamb’s face brightened. “ Oh, Sister,” she ex- 
claimed, “ I wish it was time to go right off.” 

“ We’ll have to get ready,” said Sister. “ Of course 
we’ll have to have lots of things to eat to last two or 
three days, and there will be other things,” and Sister 
looked very serious and important. 

“ Sister,” asked Lamb, “ tell me just one thing : do 
we have to go a long ways off ? ” 

“ No,” answered Sister ; “ but don’t ask me any more 
questions. We had better begin saving cake right 
away. We can put cake and cookies in the boxes 


At School 


13 

where we keep our Sunday hats. And the day we 
start we must remember to take some eggs.” 

“ And some summer sweetings and plums,” added 
Lamb. 

The little girls were so intent on their plans that 
they did not notice Miss Abitha as she came across 
the yard. She laughed at their surprised looks when 
she called out a gay “ Good-morning, young ladies.” 

Miss Abitha was unusually tall, and she was older 
than Mrs. Newman, the children’s mother, but she was 
always so interested in all that Constance and Lamb 
enjoyed, and had made so many pleasant plans for 
them during their two years stay at their grandfath- 
er’s, that she seemed like a companion and friend 
rather than an elderly school-teacher ; and they now 
welcomed her warmly and made a place for her to sit 
beside them in the sunny doorway. 

“ Your grandmother tells me that it is all settled 
about your going to Miss Wilson’s,” began Miss 
Abitha ; “ and I must tell you some of the good times 
I had when I went to school.” 

“ Good times,” echoed Constance doubtfully. 

“Yes, indeed. Do you suppose twenty nice girls 
living together don’t have good times ? You just 
wait and see. I was fourteen when I went.” 


14 Grandpa s Gittle Girls 

“ I’m not quite eleven,” said Lamb ; ‘‘ and my grand- 
mother thinks that is most too young, but father 
thinks I must go with Sister.” 

“ Of course you must,” declared Miss Abitha, “ you 
will be the pet of the school. I went to Miss Wilson’s 
school myself.” 

“ She must be dreadful old,” suggested Sister. 

Miss Abitha laughed. “ This is the ‘ young Miss 
Wilson ; ’ she is nearly sixty I believe. Her elder sister 
used to be the head of the school. I was a very tall 
girl for fourteen, and the girls used to make up rhymes 
about me. One was : 

“ ‘ Tallest ever seen is our own Abitha Bean. 

She’s a brick and she’s a scholar, 

Hope she won’t grow any taller.’ ” 


“ I shouldn’t want strange girls to make up verses 
about me,” said Sister. 

“ Then there is another good reason for you to go 
away to school,” laughed Miss Abitha. 

“ Perhaps we shan’t have to go after all,” said Lamb. 
“We may be sick or something,” she added hastily, as 
Sister gave her an accusing look. 

“ Did the girls make up any more verses about you, 
Miss Abitha ? ” questioned Sister. 


At School 


‘5 


“ I don’t remember,” responded Miss Abitha, “ but 
we used to have so many good times that now and 
then we did not have very good lessons, and then we 
would be called into Miss Wilson’s room and she 
would talk to us. Sometimes pretty sharply. One af- 
ternoon I had made up my mind to study, and shut 
myself into my room, but every girl who came down 
the corridor would rap or run in a moment. So I 
took a large square of white paper and printed on it : 

“ ‘ Please pass by and ouly grin, 

For Abitha toils within ’ ” — 

I fastened it on the outside of my door and after 
that I wasn’t bothered, and I had very good recita- 
tions the next day.” 

‘‘ We’d both rather go to school to you. Miss 
Abitha,” said Lamb, sitting a little closer to her 
valued companion. 

Miss Abitha’s sunny face grew serious. She put her 
arm about the little girl’s shoulder. 

“ I don’t know what we shall do without you,” she 
said. “ I expect Miss Wilson will have to take us all ; 
for we shall be as lonesome as can be, while you chil- 
dren will be making new friends and forgetting' all 
about everything at Fine Tree farm.” 


i6 Grandpa s Liule Girls 

“ Oh, no ! ” exclaimed both the little girls, and, as 
Miss Abitha arose and said she must hurry home, 
Constance said with an air of mystery, “ You wait 
and see. We may not go to school after all.” 

At this Miss Abitha laughed again, and looking 
down at her little friends she said : 

“I’ll race you to the house. One! Two! Three 
and off ! ” and the tall woman and the two girls 
started swiftly across the yard. 

Grandmother Newman and Mrs. Henry Newman 
were sitting on the side porch with their sewing, and, 
as they saw the flying figures coming toward them 
they began to laugh. 

“ I don’t know what Abitha will do when the chil- 
dren go,” said young Mrs. Newman. 

“ I don’t know what any of us will do,” declared 
grandmother, “ here we have tried every way to make 
them love this place and be happy here, and now that 
they can’t bear to think of leaving we have got to send 
them away,” and grandmother sighed and began to 
hunt for her handkerchief. 


CHAPTEB II 


A SURPRISE PICNIC 

When Mr. and Mrs. Newman decided to send their 
little daughters to Newville to Miss Wilson’s home 
school, Grandmother Newman at once declared that 
each of the children would have to have an entire new 
outfit. 

“ Gingham and flannel dresses are all very well here 
at home,” she said, ‘‘ but we want our girls to be as 
well-dressed as their playmates, so we must set right 
at work and make them some new dresses.” 

Young Mrs. Newman smiled. “ They will need 
more clothes, being away from home,” she responded ; 
“ but I remember that Miss Wilson always insisted on 
her pupils being very plainly dressed.” 

But grandmother had her way, and enough blue 
cashmere was bought to make both Sister and Lamb a 
dress. They were each to have dresses of fine checked 
serge, also, and, greatly to Sister’s delight, her mother 
decided that she might have some pretty cheviot 
waists made to Avear with part worn skirts. 

Then the village milliner was visited, and when 

17 


i8 Grandpa s L,ittle Girls 

Sister found that her new hat was really to have two 
blue wings on it she almost made up her mind that 
going away to school was not such a bad idea after all. 

“ But we can wear our new things at home just as 
well,” she decided. 

Lamb shook her head. “ No, we can’t,” she an- 
nounced, “ if we don’t go the last of September they 
will save our clothes for us to wear when we go in 
January.” 

“We won’t go in January, Lamb Eunice Newman. 
Didn’t I say that I’d think of something so we wouldn’t 
have to go? We can run away this time and next 
time we can do something else.” 

“ Sister ! ” exclaimed Lamb, “ I know that it will be 
lovely to run away, but I’ve thought of an easier plan ; 
where we won’t have to take blankets and things,” for 
Sister, with great forethought, had told her small 
sister that a blanket or two had best be taken on their 
proposed trip. 

“ What is it ? ” questioned Sister. 

“ It’s this,” and Lamb’s face dimpled happily at the 
thought that at last she was the one to make a clever 
suggestion as to a way to take them out of their im- 
pending trouble ; “ to make believe that we had just as 
soon go away to school as not, and go. Then, just as 


At School 


19 


soon as mother leaves us at Miss Wilson’s we will 
begin to wear our best clothes every day, and act just 
as bad as we can. So bad,” and Lamb stopped and 
drew a long breath, and then concluded, “so bad that 
Miss Wilson won’t let us stay there, but will send us 
straight home.” 

Sister looked at Lamb wonderingly, but she finally 
nodded her approval. “We might do that in January,” 
she responded thoughtfully, “ but I don’t see just what 
we could do to make her send us home.” 

“We could find out as soon as we got there what 
she didn’t want us to do and then do it,” replied 
Lam b. 

“ I guess our folks would rather we ran away,” 
decided Constance, “ but they know that we don’t 
want to go, and I don’t see why they make us.” 

“ Mr. Eben Bean says the reason is that they want 
us to grow up a credit to them,” suggested Lamb. 

Constance sniffed scornfully, “ of course we’d do 
that anyway,” she declared, “ and here everything is 
just exactly the way we want it.” 

Grandfather Newman came around the corner just 
in time to hear this announcement, and his pleasant 
face beamed with pleasure. “ That’s good news,” he 
declared. 


20 


Grandpa s Little Girls 

“ Oh, dear grandfather,” exclaimed Lamb, “ do you 
want us to go away and leave this lovely place, and 
leave you ? ” 

“ And only come home for horrid short vacations,” 
added Sister. 

“ Of course I don’t ! The idea ! ” said grandfather. 

“ Then we won’t go,” exclaimed both the girls. 

“ Wait, wait ! ” said grandfather. “ I am not the one 
to decide this affair. It is for your mother and father 
to say. If I had my way you wouldn’t go one step.” 

“ You tell our father and mother that you won’t let 
them send us,” suggested Sister ; “ they are your chil- 
dren and they would have to mind you.” 

This seemed to amuse grandfather very much, but 
after a while he looked serious again, and said that 
Miss Wilson had a fine school and he expected that 
both the girls would have such a good time there that 
they would be sorry when vacation time came. 

While he was talking Miss Abitha came hurrying 
up the path. Miss Abitha always seemed in a hurry, 
for she had so many pleasant things to do and enjoyed 
doing them so much that the days were not half long 
enough for her. Her face was all smiles, and as she 
drew near the little group on the porch she called out, 
“ Oh, Mr. Newman, you are just the one I want 


At School 2 1 

to see. Can I have old Lion and the carryall to- 
morrow ? ” 

“ Yes,” replied Mr. Newman, “ of course you can, if 
you’ll promise to fetch them back when you get 
through with them.” 

Miss Abitha nodded. “ And I want to borrow Jim- 
mie Woody ear too,” she continued. 

Jimmie Woody ear was the son of a neighbor, and 
had been regularly employed at Pine Tree farm for the 
past two years. He helped Mr. Eben Bean in caring 
for the stock, and was a great favorite with all the 
Newman family. 

“ Well, I don’t know about lending Jimmie,” said 
Mr. Newman, “ you will want to borrow Sister and 
Lamb if I don’t look sharp.” 

Miss Abitha laughed. “ That is just what I want to 
do,” she responded ; “ you old folks are all so busy with 
getting in the crops, and making dresses for our girls 
to take away, that you seem to forget that we young 
people are not having any good times. So I have 
made a nice little plan, just for Sister and Lamb and 
Jimmie and me, and I’m not going to tell what it is. 
But to-morrow morning we will start off bright and 
early and you need not expect us home until sunset.” 

“ Is it a picnic, Miss Abitha ? ” asked Lamb eagerly, 


22 


Grandpa s Gittle Girls 

while Sister’s face was shining with delighted anticipa- 
tion. 

“ Well,” responded Miss Abitha slowly, “ some peo- 
ple might call it a picnic because we shall take our 
luncheon and eat it out-of-doors. Perhaps, we might 
call it a ‘surprise picnic,’ because no one but I will 
know where we are going or what we are going to do.” 

“ It will be fine, I know it will,” exclaimed Sister, 
hardly able to sit still ; “ you do think of the nicest 
things. Miss Abitha.” 

“ I didn’t think about your going to Miss Wilson’s 
school, and next year at this time you will be saying 
that going to school was the nicest thing that ever 
happened to you,” responded Miss Abitha, with a little 
laugh. “Now I must go and tell your mother and 
grandmother to get you up early to-morrow morning,” 
and with a gay little nod Miss Abitha ran up the steps 
and into the house. 

“ I will look up Jimmie,” said grandfather, “ and 
tell him that he is to have a holiday to-morrow,” and 
Mr. Newman started toward the lower field where 
Jimmie was helping Mr. Bean dig potatoes, and the 
two little girls were left alone. 

“What do you suppose a ‘surprise picnic’ is. 
Sister ? ” questioned Lamb. 


At School 


23 


Sister shook her head. “I can’t guess,” she re- 
sponded, “ but. Lamb, Miss Abitha never planned a 
good time yet but what it was a little better than any 
other good time we ever had.” 

“ Then to-morrow will be the very best time,” said 
Lamb. 

“ She says girls at school have good times,” re- 
marked Sister thoughtfully, “ but I don’t see what 
they can do, all shut up in a house.” 

“Miss Abitha always has good times,” said Lamb. 
“ I guess it’s just because she’s Miss Abitha, and can’t 
help it wherever she is.” 

It was hardly daylight the next morning when 
Sister and Lamb were awakened by some pebbles 
striking against their chamber window. Sister 
jumped out of bed and ran and looked out. Jimmie 
Woody ear stood outside looking anxiously up. 

“You’d better hurry up,” he called; “Lion is all 
harnessed and your breakfast is most ready.” 

“Jump right up. Lamb,” commanded Sister, and just 
at that moment grandmother appeared at the door. 

Grandmother Newman was the nicest person in the 
world to brush out a girl’s hair in the morning. She 
never pulled at the puzzling little snarls, but brushed 
so smoothly and evenly that before you knew it your 


24 Grandpa s Gittle Girls 

hair was as smooth as silk, your hair-ribbon tied in 
the nicest of bows, and you could look in the glass 
with surprise at the happy reflection. So she always 
received the warmest reception possible. 

“ Grandmother, what will we do at school without 
you ? ” said Lamb. 

“ And you want us to go,’’ declared Sister accus- 
ingly. Just then Miss Abitha’s voice was heard, and 
grandmother had only time to give each of the girls 
a kiss and hurry them down to breakfast. 

Jimmie sat on the front seat of the carryall beside 
Miss Abitha, and Constance and Lamb on the back seat. 

Grandfather and grandmother and Mr. and Mrs. 
Henry Hewman were all standing near to see them 
start, and Mr. Eben Bean was telling Jimmie to be 
sure and put a blanket over “ Lion,” and see that he 
had plenty of good water to drink. 

Jimmie was the happiest one of the happy party. 
He did not have many holidays, and to go off with 
Miss Abitha and the two little girls seemed the nicest 
kind of an outing. He was nearly fourteen years old, 
and was a large, strong boy of his age. He had 
begun to wonder what he would do when he became 
a man, and had about decided that a farmer’s life was 
the happiest and most independent. His own father 


At School 


25 


did not own any land, and Jimmie often thought to 
himself that he would earn all the money he could, 
and when he grew older he would buy land and have 
a home like Pine Tree farm. But this morning his 
thoughts were only for the day before him. He did 
not even know in what direction Miss Abitha wanted 
him to drive, and when they reached the gate he 
looked at her inquiringly. 

“Turn to the right, Jimmie,” she said, “and drive 
down the Beech Hill road until you get to the school- 
house road.” 

The schoolhouse road received its name from a little 
brown building which had formerly been used for a 
schoolhouse, but had been deserted for many years 
and was now very much out of repair. It was only 
a short distance from the Beech Hill road, but stood 
in a lonely spot where there was but little passing. 

“ Where does the schoolhouse road go to. Miss 
Abitha?” asked Lamb. Sister leaned out from the 
carryall and looked at the old schoolhouse with ob- 
serving eyes. She noticed that the door sagged on 
its hinges, that there was no glass in the window- 
frames, and that the chimney had many missing 
bricks, but she smiled in so satisfied a manner that 
Lamb looked at her wonderingly. 


26 


Grandpa s L,ittle Girls 

“The schoolhouse road is just a little crossroad be- 
tween Beech Hill road and the stage road,’’ replied 
Miss Abitha, and she had hardly finished speaking 
when they came out on the stage road. “ How turn 
to the left, Jimmie,” she said, and as old Lion swung 
into the broad straight road both Sister and Lamb ex- 
claimed in admiration. 

The road was bard and smooth and was shaded on 
each side by tall elms and wide-branched oaks. Wild 
clematis and geraniums were at their loveliest, and 
grew near the roadside in masses of color. 

“ 1 can see a lovely blue lake straight ahead, at the 
end of this road,” announced Lamb, leaning forward 
and putting her head between Miss Abitha and 
Jimmie. 

Jimmie looked down at her with a little laugh. 

“ That isn’t a lake,” he said, “ that’s Blue Mountain.” 

“ Oh,” exclaimed Sister, “ do we drive right to 
it?” 

“ This road curves ’round it,” responded Jimmie. 

The curve in the road came very suddenly, and then 
the mountain seemed to have changed color ; for, as 
they came nearer they could see the beautiful thick 
growth of spruce trees, with now and then a glowing 
yellow branch of a birch or maple. 


At School 


27 


“Drive right in there, Jimmie,” directed Miss 
Abitha, and they turned into a wood-road, apparently 
but little used. The limbs of the trees scraped across 
the top of the carriage, and the woods grew so thickly 
on each side that they seemed almost like green walls. 

“ We are going straight up Blue Mountain,” said 
Sister in a whisper. 

Then Miss Abitha turned around and nodded 
smilingly. “ That’s just what we are doing,” she 
responded ; “ but we won’t make poor Lion do it all ; 
just as soon as we get to the big chestnut we will have 
to get out, for the road ends there.” 

In a short time they came out into a clearing. 
Nearly in the centre stood a big chestnut tree and 
Jimmie drove directly under it and called out, 
“ Whoa,” as he sprang to the ground and politely 
helped Miss Abitha from the carriage. Sister and 
Lamb were out in a minute and looking eagerly about, 
while Miss Abitha and Jimmie took out the baskets. 
Then Jimmie unharnessed Lion and put a blanket 
over him. He had brought a bucket and said he knew 
where there was a fine spring of water, and started off 
to get a bucketful for the horse. 

“ This tree is covered with nuts,” said Miss Abitha. 
“ After the frost comes Jimmie and I will have to 


28 


Grandpa s Little Girls 

make another trip over here and get chestnuts to send 
to you girls.” 

“ Perhaps vve will be here to go with you,” sug- 
gested Sister. 

“ I’m afraid not,” said Miss Abitha ; “ it isn’t much 
use to try for chestnuts before October, and your 
mother plans to start for Newville with you about the 
twentieth of September ! ” 

“ And to-day is the fifth,” declared Sister, with such 
a despondent note in her voice that Miss Abitha 
laughed. 

“ Don’t talk about going away,” said Lamb ; just 
see how lovely everything is here,” and she looked up 
admiringly toward the upward slope of the mountain. 
“ Are we going way up ? ” she asked. 

“ As far as the Look Out,” answered Miss Abitha, 
and as Jimmie had now attended to all Lion’s wants 
the little party started up the narrow path. 

Miss Abitha led the way. It was a steep scramble 
in some places, but they kept on and when they 
came out on the smooth moss covered ledge known as 
the Look Out they all felt it well worth the hard climb. 

It seemed like a shelf on the mountainside. It 
was about forty feet wide, and then the space shelved 
rudely down over a jumble of rocks and half-grown 


At School 


29 

spruce trees. Back of it rose a cliff, partly covered 
with the forest growth. 

As they came out on the Look Out and set down 
their baskets they turned admiring looks over the 
beautiful view stretched beneath them. The curve of 
the white road, the smooth fields and orchards, the 
distant river and mountains, made up a beautiful pic- 
ture that Sister and Lamb never forgot. 

Miss Abitha and Jimmie were more familiar with 
the scene, but they enjoyed the evident pleasure of 
their companions. 

“ What lovely soft moss,” exclaimed Lamb, establish- 
ing herself comfortably near a big rock. 

“ This is the very best time of all,” declared Con- 
stance, “ but I’m as hungry as can be, and awfully 
warm and thirsty.” 

“Bring me that covered pail, Jimmie,” said Miss 
Abitha, and when she opened it there were two tall 
bottles with ice all about them. 

“ Lemonade ! ” exclaimed Jimmie, “ I smell it.” 

The cool drink made them all more comfortable, 
and as Miss Abitha handed them some delicious 
sandwiches, and took out a number of tempting 
looking cakes they began to feel that they would not 
long be hungry. 


3 ° 


Grandpa s Gittle Girls 

“Aren’t we going to have any sort of a fire?” 
questioned Sister, “ we always have had fires at our 
other picnics and roasted things.” 

Miss Abitha shook her head. “ No,” she responded, 
“no fires allowed on Blue Mountain. For some 
careless person might forget to put one out, and 
then all these beautiful woods would be burned away.” 

Miss Abitha told them that far to the south the 
ocean lay. “ Sometimes we can see it from here,” she 
said, and after patiently looking toward the south for 
some minutes both Lamb and Jimmie could distinguish 
the gray, hazy line which Miss Abitha told them was 
the sea. Constance had found a bed of checkerber- 
ries. The fruit was just ripe and she gathered a hand- 
ful of the spicy red berries and brought them to Miss 
Abitha. 

“What’s that?” exclaimed Jimmie, as a rustle 
sounded in the underbrush just below them. They 
all kept very quiet and listened. In a moment the 
noise came again, and then the yellow nose of a fox 
poked itself up. 

“ Oh ! ” whispered Lamb, “ it’s my own fox way off 
here, and grown up.” 

“ I do believe it is,” said Miss Abitha, for the wild- 
wood creature stepped out from its cover and drew 


At School 


31 


near. While cautious about coming within reach, it 
was evidently not afraid, and picked up the pieces of 
bread and chicken that the children threw it. But 
when Lamb made a rush toward him Sir Fox van- 
ished, and was seen no more. 

Jimmie scrambled down among the rocks to see if 
he could not find the fox’s den. Miss Abitha declared 
that she was sleepy, and rested her head against a 
conveniently sloping rock, while Lamb and Sister 
went back to secure more checkerberries. 

“ This would be a nice place to run to. Sister,” sug- 
gested Lamb. 

Sister shook her head. “ No,” she responded, “it’s 
too far, and it would be horrid if it rained. I’ve got 
a place all picked out, and I’ll tell you. Lamb, if you’ll 
promise honest not to tell.” 

But before Lamb could promise there came a loud 
call from the rocks below. 

“ Help,” came the voice, and both the little girls 
exclaimed, “ It’s Jimmie ! ” and ran and looked over 
the rough pile of stones where the boy had scrambled 
down. Miss Abitha heard the call, and was making 
her way down the slope as quickly as possible. 


CIIAPTEK III 


JIMMIE IS IN DANGER 

Jimmie was familiar with the Look Out slope and 
knew that, just below the loose heap of rocks, there 
was a steep ledge with a drop of twenty feet or 
more ; but, in his eagerness to follow the fox and dis- 
cover its hiding place, he forgot that every step on 
Look Out slope should be taken with great care, as 
the rolling stones might send a careless traveler down 
over the cliff. 

But he had no thought of fear as he scrambled 
swiftly down among the scrubby spruce and uncertain 
rocks. He had a glimpse of a pointed yellow head, 
and giving a spring toward it lost his footing and 
in a second was sliding and stumbling down the de- 
clivity, unable to help himself. Over the verge of the 
ledge went Jimmie as if thrown by strong hands and 
as he went the back of his jacket caught on a pro- 
truding stump and he found himself swinging off into 
space, held only by the uncertain strength of his coat. 
It was then that his loud call for help aroused Miss 
Abitha and startled Sister and Lamb. 

32 


At School 


33 


Miss Abitlia at once discovered the boy’s predica- 
ment, and as she made her way toward him she called 
back to the two little girls : “ Stay right where you 

are, children ; don’t come a step this way unless I call 
for you.” 

It took Miss Abitha but a short time to reach the 
place where Jimmie hung helpless and motionless ; for 
he had at once realized that any movement on his 
part might set his coat free and send him down on to 
the pile of rocks below. 

“ If Jimmie wasn’t such a big boy I could get hold 
of his shoulders and pull him up,” thought Miss 
Abitha, but she was sure that Jimmie’s weight was 
too much for her to attempt such a thing, and that it 
could only result in dragging her over the cliff. She 
stood near the stump and made her decision quickly. 
Unfastening her strong blue serge skirt she tore it into 
strips, tied the strips securely together and fastened 
one end around the stump. 

“ My jacket is tearing,” called Jimmie, warningly. 
He had heard Miss Abitha and knew that she was 
trying to help him, but he dared not even turn his 
head to discover in what way. 

“Jimmie,” said Miss Abitha, “I am going to drop 
a rope, made of my skirt, as nearly over your shoulder 


34 


Grandpa s Gittle Girls 

as I can and you must grab it and fasten it about 
3^our body. Then you can turn yourself about and 
make an effort to climb up. I am sure the rope will 
hold and I can help you.” 

“ But I’m afraid to move for fear the jacket won’t 
hold,” said Jimmie. 

“I will hold on to the jacket. You must do as I 
say, Jimmie, for the jacket can’t hold long at the best, 
and then you may get a bad fall.” 

Fastening a stick to the end to steady it Miss 
Abitha dropped her rope carefully down over the 
boy’s shoulder. She saw his right arm move cau- 
tiously toward it. In a few seconds he had managed 
to fasten it securely about his body. Then Miss 
Abitha knew that the danger had not really lessened, 
and that the time had come for quick work. It was 
possible that the strands might give w'ay. 

“Now turn round, Jimmie,” she commanded, “and 
grab for the edge of the cliff.” The boy obeyed, and 
at his first decided movement the jacket gave way 
and he swung held only by the rope. He had made 
an upward clutch as he swung, and succeeded in 
getting a grasp on an overhanging root ; and with 
Miss Abitha’s assistance he crawled back into safety. 

“ Do you suppose my mother can mend that coat ? ” 


At School 


35 

he asked anxiously, as he and his rescuer made their 
way up the slope. 

“Perhaps she can, but she can’t mend my skirt,” 
responded Miss Abitha, with a little laugh. 

“ Oh, Miss Abitha ! ” exclaimed Jimmie, conscious- 
stricken at the thought that he had for a moment 
forgotten his obligations to her. “ Your nice skirt is 
all torn up, to help me ! ” He wanted to thank her, 
but he hardly knew how. 

“ My dear boy, you are worth more serge skirts 
than I shall ever have,” she declared ; “ and I would 
have given anything I had rather than to have had 
you fall down on those dreadful rocks.” 

Jimmie’s face flushed as he turned a grateful look 
toward his friend. He resolved then and there that 
he would buy Miss Abitha a new skirt, and decided to 
consult young Mrs. He wman about it as soon as possible. 

Sister and Lamb could hardly wait for Jimmie to 
clamber up to where they stood before they were 
calling out to know what had happened ; and they 
listened eagerly to Jimmie’s brief description of his 
accident and rescue. 

“ I suppose that is what you would call an adven- 
ture, isn’t it ? ” questioned Sister. 

Miss Abitha nodded. “ Yes,” she answered, “ but 


36 Grandpa s Gittle Girls 

it might have been a mis-adventure if I had not 
remembered something that I learned at school.” 

“ At school ? ” repeated Sister questioningly. 

“Yes,” replied Miss Abitha. “You children sit 
down on this nice moss and rest and give Jimmie 
what there is left in the lunch-basket; adventures 
make people hungry, don’t they, Jimmie ? ” The boy 
smiled his agreement to this suggestion, and Miss 
Abitha again turned to Sister. “Yes,” she repeated, 
“ when I went to Miss Wilson’s school we were taught 
all sorts of interesting and helpful things. She 
taught us to think and to act, too. Once every week 
she gave us an ‘ emergency talk.’ An emergency talk 
was to give us some idea of what to do in case of 
accidents. Once she told us what to do when a 
person had been nearly drowned ; and once she told 
us of things that might be done to escape from a 
burning building, and that was what I remembered 
when I saw Jimmie hanging over the cliff.” 

“ What did she tell you ? ” asked Sister. 

“ She told us that sometimes it was possible to 
lower a person from a high window by tearing up 
sheets and blankets, and even wearing apparel, and 
tying them into long, strong ropes. So, not having a 
sheet or blanket I thought of ‘ wearing apparel.’ ” 


At School 


37 

“ What else did she tell you about ? ” asked Jimmie, 
eagerly, between bites of a sandwich. 

“ Why,” responded Miss Abitha thoughtfully, “ as I 
look back now it seems to me as if she told me every- 
thing I know. We used to have the nicest times in 
our botany excursions. One afternoon every week 
the botany class went off after specimens. One after- 
noon the geology class went, and such queer things 
as we found out.” 

“I shouldn’t call that going to school,” announced 
Lamb. “ Why, going after flowers and rocks is almost 
the same as going on picnics.” 

“It was all lovely,” declared Miss Abitha; “and 
right near Miss Wilson’s school there is a big lake, 
and one of the teachers used to give us swimming 
lessons ; and there were boats to go rowing in after 
study hours. You girls don’t know what good times 
really are until you have twenty other girls to enjoy 
them with you.” 

Lamb looked hopefully toward Sister. The 
younger girl was beginning to think that going 
away to school was not such a dreadful thing 
after all. Lamb was thinking how nice it would 
be to learn to swim, and perhaps to learn to row 
a boat. But Sister’s expression was not encourag- 


38 Grandpa s Little Girls 

ing. She was regarding Miss Abitha with almost 
disapproval. 

“ I would rather stay at Pine Tree farm than to 
learn everything in the world,” she declared. 

Miss Abitha laughed. “ You won’t feel that way 
next year, my dear,” she replied, “ and now we must 
journey down and see how old Lion has enjoyed the 
day and start for home. It has been more of a sur- 
prise picnic than you expected, hasn’t it, Jimmie?” 

“ I’ve had a real good time,” responded Jimmie, 
‘‘ seeing the fox, and everything. I guess I shall re- 
member about being careful after this.” 

It was late in the afternoon before Lion was har- 
nessed and ready to start down toward the stage 
road. As they went swiftly over the smooth road 
toward home Lamb whispered to Constance, “ Sister, 
wouldn’t you like to go to school just a little while ? ” 

“JSTo, I wouldn’t,” replied Constance crossly, and 
just then Miss Abitha turned a smiling face toward 
them. “ I forgot to tell you,” she said, “ about the 
nice skating parties we used to have at school. There 
would be two big bonfires built, one on each side of 
the lake : the sun goes out of sight so early on winter 
days, you know. But some of the teachers always 
went out with us, and we played games ; skated, four 


At School 


39 

of US holding hands, did quadrilles, and all sorts of things. 
You girls will see what it’s like this very winter.” 

“ Oh, Sister ! ” exclaimed Lamb almost pleadingly. 

“ I suppose we could have just as good a time skating 
on the mill-pond at home,” said Sister. 

“ I don’t believe you could,” responded Miss Abitha. 
“ In the first place you wouldn’t have all those nice 
girls to enjoy it and play games with you ; and then 
the mill-pond is so far from your house that you 
couldn’t go very often.” 

When they came in sight of the deserted schoolhouse 
Sister again looked at it with much interest, and did 
not notice that Lamb was very quiet, and sighed fre- 
quently, all the way home. 

Shep came running out to meet them, his plume- 
like tail curled over more than ever, and Mr. Bean 
was on hand to help Jimmie unharness old Lion. 
The family listened to the little girl’s account of the 
day’s pleasure, and of Jimmie’s accident. 

“ There, Constance,” exclaimed grandmother, 
“ what would have become of Jimmie if Miss Abitha 
had not had the advantages of Miss Wilson’s instruc- 
tion ? ” 

“All people talk about is ‘school, school,’” re- 
sponded Sister. “ I’m sure Miss Abitha would be just 


40 


Grandpa s L,ittle Girls 

as nice if she had never gone away to school, wouldn’t 
she, grandfather?” and Sister looked hopefully to- 
ward her grandfather, sure that he would uphold her 
in her opinion about schools. 

But, greatly to her surprise. Grandfather Newman 
seemed to hesitate. He looked toward grandmother 
and then toward his daughter-in-law and said, “Per- 
haps I’d better tell them about it?” 

“Yes, father,” said young Mrs. Newman smilingly, 
“ I’m sure Abitha would want you to.” 

Grandfather Newman nodded. “ You see,” he be- 
gan, “when Abitha was about Sister’s age she was 
rather a spoiled child. Her mother died when Abitha 
was a little girl, and Eben never could bear to refuse 
her anything that she set her heart on, and I’m afraid 
we all indulged her more than was right, and she was 
growing up anyway she saw fit. She didn’t want to 
learn to do any work about the house or to do any- 
thing useful for herself or for anybody else.” 

The little girls were listening with evident surprise. 
It did not seem possible to them that any one as kind 
and helpful as Miss Abitha, and who knew so much 
about all sorts of useful and helpful things, could ever 
have been the sort of a girl that Grandfather Newman 
described. 


At School 


(■ 


41 


“Well, when her fourteenth birthday was almost 
here,” went on Mr. Newman, “ your grandmother took 
1 hold of the alfair. She had a talk with Eben, and she 
' wrote to the school, and she had a talk with Abitha, 
i and it was decided that Abitha was to go away to 
school. But Abitha didn’t like the idea much better 
, than Sister does. She declared she wouldn’t go ; 
j but none of us paid much attention to that. Eben 
! was going with her, and when the time came for 
; them to start there wasn’t any girl to go. Abitha had 
run away ! ” 

“ 0-oh ! ” exclaimed both the little girls ; “ where 
did she run ? ” 

“ She didn’t run very far,” replied grandfather. 
“ There was an old smoke-house back of the barns at 
that time, and when we went to look for her we found 
her there. She had fixed up a bed for herself, carried 
out food, and prepared to stay several days,” grand- 
father laughed at the remembrance, and then con- 
tinued, “ Eben had to be pretty firm that day. She 
was very tall for her age, but he picked her up and 
carried her out to the wagon and lifted her in and off 
they went. We didn’t see Abitha again for six 
months, but when we did see her we saw a much 
more lovable girl. She liked Pine Tree farm just as 


42 Grandpa s Gitth Girls 

well as ever, but she had been away among well-be- 
haved girls and had proper instruction, and that was 
the beginning of the Abitha we all love so well. 
Miss Wilson’s school taught her to be thoughtful for 
others and for herself, and to be of some use in the 
world.” 

Grandmother Newman nodded approvingly. “You 
see, my dears, that school means a great deal,” she 
said. 

But Sister did not look convinced. “ I guess Miss 
Abitha would have been nice anyway,” she declared. 

Just as Lamb was going to sleep that night Sister 
gave her a warning poke. “ Lamb,” she whispered, “ I 
didn’t tell you where we were going to run away to.” 

“ No,” responded Lamb, sleepily. 

“Well,” said Sister, “I should think you could 
guess. We’re going to stay in the old brown school- 
house till they get over their idea of sending us away 
to school.” 

“JVIiss Abitha bad to go,” said Lamb ;“and every- 
body sa3^s school is lovely. Don’t you think we had 
better go for a little while, Sister ? ” 

“No, I don’t!” replied Sister, positively, and Lamb 
was too sleepy to argue the question. 


CHAPTER ly 


GETTING READY TO RUN AWAY 

“ Mrs. Hewman,” said Jimmie Woody ear the morn- 
ing after the ride to the Look Out, “ does a serge skirt 
cost very much ? I mean a skirt for a grown-up 
woman.’’ 

“Why, no, Jimmie,” replied Mrs. Hewman, “ you can 
buy enough serge for a good skirt for three dollars.” 

Jimmie’s face brightened. He had a few dollars 
saved, and had determined to buy Miss Abitha 
material for a new skirt, to take the place of the one 
she had torn up for him, but had been almost afraid that 
he would not have money enough. How he was sure 
that he could make the desired purchase, and resolved 
to do so that very day, for Mr. Hewman had told him 
that he should want him to go to the village on an 
errand. But when he was all ready to start he was 
somewhat dismayed to see Miss Abitha waiting for 
him at her gate. She wore a hat and was evidently 
intending to go with him. Jimmie felt that it would 
be easier to buy the serge if Miss Abitha was not 
43 


44 Grandpa s Gittle Girls 

standing near ; but he helped her into the wagon and 
they drove off toward the village. 

“ I am going to the village to buy some serge,” an- 
nounced Miss Abitha, as they rode along. Jimmie 
drew in his breath quickly but did not speak, and his 
companion continued, “ I am going to make Sister and 
Lamb a little present. Their mother and grandmother 
have made them all sorts of pretty clothes to wear 
when they go away, but they have not thought about 
gymnasium suits ; and just as soon as the girls get 
started in at school they will need gymnasium suits, 
so I am going to make them, do them all up and put 
a card on each package saying, ‘Do not open this 
package until you have been at school four days,’” 
and Miss Abitha laughed as if she had thought of the 
best possible plan. 

Jimmie laughed too, he was glad that Miss Abitha 
was not going to buy serge for herself. “ I guess I 
don’t know what you mean by ‘gymnasium,’ ” he said. 

“I don’t suppose you do,” rejoined Miss Abitha; 
“ I must tell you about it. You see, at almost every 
school now there is a room for the pupils to play 
games in and they call that room the gymnasium. 
They have a running track, and all sorts of exercises, 
such as marching, performing on parallel bars and 


At School 


45 


trapeze, climbing ropes and poles, dumb-bells, Indian 
clubs, and all sorts of things to develop muscular 
power. And of course girls require loose, comfortable 
clothing for that sort of games.” 

“ Do they have all those things at school ? ” asked 
Jimmie, and, without waiting for an answer. “ And 
those girls don’t want to go ! My ! I wish I 
could go.” 

Miss Abitha laughed. “ You are developing a good 
deal of muscular power in your work every day, 
Jimmie,” she responded; “sawing wood and hoeing 
potatoes is just as good for you as swinging Indian 
clubs.” 

“ I’d like to have a trapeze, though,” said the boy. 

“Well, why don’t you have one?” rejoined Miss 
Abitha. “ You can make one easily enough. A good 
bar of hard wood with a strong rope fastened at each 
end, and then fasten your ropes to a beam in the shed, 
and there you are ! You fix one and I will tell you 
lots of tricks to do on it.” 

“ Oh, will you. Miss Abitha? That will be great,” 
exclaimed Jimmie. “ I used to think that I’d go to 
sea when I was old enough,” continued the boy ; “ but 
since I began to work for Mr. Newman I have made 
up my mind to be a farmer.” 


46 


Grandpa s Gittle Girls 

“ That’s right,” said Miss Abitha cordially. 

“ And I am going to save money and buy some 
land,” continued the boy more seriously ; ‘‘ but I guess 
I shall be pretty old before I own much of a farm.” 

“I have some land of my own,” announced Miss 
Abitha, “ and I would like to sell it. Perhaps we can 
strike a bargain. I own thirty acres on the Franklin 
road. It is all growing up with alders and white 
birch. It ought to be cleared and burned over and 
ploughed ; but I can’t afford to have it done.” 

‘‘ That’s good land up that way,” remarked Jimmie. 

“Jimmie!” exclaimed Miss Abitha, sitting up 
straighter than ever, “ I have thought of a fine 
plan I Why can’t you clear my land for me and 
take your pay in land ? ” 

Jimmie laughed at her eager look. “ I don’t have 
any time,” he answered. “ You see Mr. Newman pays 
me regular wages. I only have Saturday afternoons.” 

“ But you could do a lot Saturday afternoons,” 
urged Miss Abitha; “you could begin cutting down 
the white birch, and I believe you could sell most of 
it for fire-wood, or perhaps to the spool mill over at 
the Junction. Jimmie! If you want to undertake it 
I will give you all you can get for the wood. And 
when you have cleared six acres I will give you an acre.” 


At School 


47 


The boy’s face had grown very bright. He knew he 
could find a market for the birch wood. He looked 
at Miss Abitha earnestly. “ Can I begin next Satur- 
day ? ” he asked. 

“Of course you can,” said Miss Abitha ; “ and by the 
time you are twenty-one you will own a farm of your 
own.” 

The errands at the village were soon attended to, 
and the time had come for Jimmie to purchase the 
material for Miss Abitha’s skirt. She was standing 
near him, but he did not hesitate. 

“I want five yards of dark blue serge,” he de- 
manded of the storekeeper, and, that there might be 
no mistake, he added: “It’s for a lady, to make a 
skirt of.” 

The storekeeper nodded, measured off the goods, 
handed Jimmie the package, and the great deed was 
accomplished. 

Miss Abitha and Jimmie had so much to talk about 
that the ride home seemed very short. When they 
reached Miss Abitha’s gate Jimmie carried her bundles 
in to the house for her. 

“ But here is an extra parcel,” exclaimed Miss Abitha, 
taking up the package which held the serge material. 
“ What is this ? ” 


48 Grandpa s L,ittle Girls 

“ That is cloth to make you a new skirt,” declared 
Jimmie. Miss Abitha looked at the boy for a mo- 
ment, and then she said, with a little quaver in her 
voice, “ Thank you, Jimmie,” and went into the house, 
and someway Jimmie felt very much pleased with 
himself, and drove old Lion into the farm yard at a 
brisk pace. 

He was very anxious to get home that night and 
tell his mother of Miss Abitha’s plan. The Woodyear 
family lived in a small house half a mile from Pine 
Tree farm, and Jimmie went home every night. He 
knew that his mother would think that he was a 
fortunate boy to have so good an opportunity to earn 
an acre of land. 

When he was unharnessing Lion, Lamb and Sister 
came out to the stable. 

“ Do you know what good times you girls are going 
to have ? ” questioned Jimmie. 

“ Oh, what ? ” asked Sister eagerly, thinking 
that Miss Abitha had told Jimmie of some new 
plan. 

“ Why, at school,” responded the boy, “ Miss 
Abitha says that they have a big room there on pur- 
pose to play games in. Indian clubs to swing, and all 
sorts of things. I’m going to fix a trapeze in the shed 


At School 


49 

and she is going to show me how to do some of the 
tricks.” 

“ When are you going to fix it ? ” asked Sister. 

“ As soon as the fall work is over,” answered 
Jimmie, ‘‘if I have time,” he concluded thoughtfully ; 
“ but I may not have a chance before you girls come 
home for vacation ; and then you could tell me 
about it.” 

“We may not go to school after all,” said Sister; 
endeavoring to speak as if it was a question hardly 
worth discussing. 

Jimmie looked at her in surprise. “ Well,” he said 
slowly, “ some people don’t know when they are lucky. 
I wish I could go to school.” 

Just then Mrs. Newman called to the girls from 
the porch door. “ Come, children, I want to try on 
your new dresses,” she said, and they both scampered 
toward the house. 

That afternoon Sister told Lamb that they must 
begin to make their arrangements at the schoolhouse. 

“We will need quilts,” said Sister ; “ and it is too far 
away for us to carry very much. So we will have to 
take things down in the pony cart.” 

“ How can we ? ” objected Lamb. “ I guess if we go 
to loading quilts and things into the pony cart 


50 


Grandpa s L.ittle Girls 

our mother would know it and ask us about it right 
off.” 

“ Oh, dear,” answered Sister. “ Lamb ! Of course 
we have got to hide things. We must take the quilts 
out to-night, after everybody else is asleep, and hide 
them behind the stone wall down the road a piece, 
then to-morrow we will start off to ride and get the 
quilts and carry them down to the schoolhouse.” 

“ What else will we have to take? ” asked Lamb. 

“ Well,” said Sister thoughtfully, “it will be a good 
plan to take some potatoes to bake, and some 
apples. And next time we will take bread and cake.” 

Lamb was very quiet that afternoon. The idea of 
creeping out of the house after all the older people 
were asleep seemed a pretty serious undertaking. 
Besides that she had begun to think that going away 
to school was not, after all, such a great misfortune. 
If Miss Abitha had enjoyed it so much Lamb was 
quite sure there must be some pleasure in it, and only 
Constance’s determination not to leave Pine Tree 
farm held her younger sister to the plan of running 
away. 

“We won’t undress,” said Constance, when the two 
little girls had gone up-stairs that evening; “ we’ll just 
slip off our shoes and get right in bed ; then, after 


At School 


51 


everybody else is sound asleep we will creep down- 
stairs just as easy, let ourselves out the front door, and 
carry the quilts down the road.” 

“ Perhaps I’ll go to sleep before it’s time to start,” 
suggested Lamb. 

“Well, I s’pose you will,” responded Constance; 
“ you always do go to sleep before I have time to talk 
any ; but I shall wake you up. I shan’t even be 
sleepy.” 

“ Are we going in our stockings ? ” asked Lamb. 

Constance nodded. “Until we get out of doors,” she 
answered ; “ we will take our shoes in our hands and 
put them on as soon as we are outside the house.” 

Lamb asked no more questions ; she lay staring into 
the darkness, resolved that she would keep awake as 
long as Constance did ; but in spite of her good inten- 
tions her eyes soon closed, and when Sister gave her a 
warning shake Lamb was sure that she had only been 
asleep a moment. 

“You have been asleep hours and hours,” whispered 
Sister. “ Grandfather went around fastening the doors 
a long time ago. I guess it’s about midnight now.” 

“Midnight,” sounded rather appalling, and Lamb 
began to whimper, “I don’t want to go out in the 
dark. Sister. Can’t we get along without quilts ? ” 


52 


Grandpa s Gittle Girls 

Constance had slipped quietly out of bed and lit the 
small larnpj and was now bringing out two packages 
from the closet. 

“ You get up this very minute. Lamb Eunice New- 
man,’’ she commanded. “ Anybody would think that 
you wanted to go to that old school.” 

For a moment Lamb thought that she would declare 
that she did want to go to school ; but she was used to 
obeying Constance and she now stumbled sleepily out 
of bed, picked up her shoes, and stood waiting. 

“ I shall put this light out in a minute,” said Con- 
stance. “ You take this quilt, and come close behind 
me,” and she lay one of Grandmother Newman’s nicely 
pieced patchwork quilts in Lamb’s outstretched arms. 
Then out went the light and the two little girls stepped 
carefully toward the chamber door. Lamb stubbed 
her toes against a forgotten chair, but she did not cry 
out. She knew that it was not a time to cry over 
small hurts. Out through the dark hallway and 
down the stairs they went. Constance unfastened the 
front door so softly that not until the big door swung 
open did Lamb realize that they were really out of 
doors. 

“Now we’ll put on our shoes,” said Constance, and 
they sat down on the broad doorstep and slipped their 


At School 


53 


feet into the stout little shoes. Then they picked up 
their quilts and went softly down the path to the road. 

It doesn’t seem so dark now that we are really out,” 
declared Lamb, looking up at the shining stars, and 
breathing in the fragant air ; “ doesn’t everything smell 
good, Sisiter,” she went on, “and don’t those trees 
make pretty shadows across the road. Why, I’m not 
a bit afraid,” and Lamb gave a little hop of satisfac- 
tion at her own unexpected courage. 

Sister walked on silently for a little way, and then 
she said, “ I’m real glad that you are not afraid, Lamb, 
because when we run away we will have to creep out 
at night just like this ; and walk all the way to the 
schoolhouse.” 

“ I think it’s fun,” responded the younger sister. 
“ Why, if I didn’t have this quilt to carry I could run 
and run.” 

They soon reached the place where Constance had 
decided to hide the quilts. She tucked them under 
some small shrubs that grew close to the wall, piled 
up some good sized stones in front of them, and de- 
clared that they would be safe enough until the next 
day, when they would come after them with the pony 
cart and take them to the schoolhouse. 

They were back at the front door in a very short 


54 Grandpa s Little Girls 

time, and Constance pushed against it. It did not 
open at the first push, so she pressed against it with 
all her small strength, still it did not yield ; and then 
Constance remembered that she had heard grand- 
mother say that there was a spring-lock on the front 
door. That is, unless the spring was turned from the 
inside, the door locked itself when shut. 

“ Oh, Lamb ! ” she exclaimed, “ the spring-lock has 
shut us out ! What shall we do ? We can’t get in.” 

“We can knock and knock and wake everybody up, 
and they will come and let us in,” suggested Lamb. 

“ We can’t,” wailed Constance ; “ they would send 
us to school to-morrow for going out after everybody 
was in bed. Even grandpa would blame us.” 

“Oh, dear,” said Lamb, “I just wish you hadn’t 
thought about quilts. Sister; then we’d be safe in- 
doors.” 

“We’ve got to get in,” declared Sister; “perhaps 
the shed window is open.” 

They went toward the shed and looked anxiously at 
the narrow window. It was open, but it was too far 
from the ground for Sister to even reach it. 

“We can’t get in there,” she said hopelessly. “ I 
guess we will have to wait until morning and then 
manage to get in without any one seeing us.” 


At School 


55 

“ Sister,” exclaimed Lamb, “ you know that big tree 
close to our windows ? ” 

“ Yes,” responded Sister. 

“ Well, can’t you climb up that tree and get in at 
our window and then come and open the front door 
for me ? ” 

“ No, I can’t,” answered Sister. I couldn’t climb 
that high anyway, and if I did I couldn’t reach our 
window. No, we’ve got to stay out of doors all night, 
and we will probably get dreadful colds, and all on 
account of their wanting us to go away to school.” 

“ Do you suppose the side door is fastened ? ” sug- 
gested Lamb, to whom the idea of staying out of doors 
all night seemed too dreadful to consider. 

Without a word Sister started for the side door. 
She lifted the latch softly and the door swung inward. 
The two little girls stepped into the dark kitchen. 

« We’ve got on our shoes,” whispered Lamb, as they 
tiptoed across the room, then through the dining- 
room right past grandfather’s chamber door and out 
into the front hall. 

“ My ! ” exclaimed Constance as they reached the 
safety of their own room, “ I guess I won’t take any- 
thing else out at night.” 


CHAPTER Y 


THE TRIP TO THE SCHOOLHOUSE 

The next day Jet was harnessed to the pony cart 
and the two little girls drove briskly down the road. 
Grandfather Newman stood at the gate and watched 
them until a turn in the road hid them from 
view. 

“ I expect they will miss Jet,” he thought, “ it 
seems almost too bad for them to go away to school 
when there is so much for them to enjoy at home.” 

If he could have seen the pony-wagon just then he 
would have realized that Sister and Lamb were mak- 
ing ready for some other journey than the one to Miss 
Wilson’s school. Sister had managed to conceal 
nearly a peck of potatoes under the seat, and a dozen 
or two apples, and when they had rescued the quilts 
from their hiding place and stowed them in the bot- 
tom of the wagon the little cart was pretty well filled. 

“We mustn’t drive right up to the schoolhouse 
door,” announced Sister, “ because some one might see 
the tracks.” So Jet was driven under a shady maple 
tree just beyond the schoolhouse, and Sister and Lamb 
56 


At School 


57 


made several journeys to the dilapidated old build- 
ing, carrying as many potatoes as they could by hold- 
ing up their dress skirts basket-fashion. 

“ There isn’t a chair or anything,” exclaimed Lamb 
as they looked about the empty little room. “We will 
have to sleep right on the bare floor, Sister.” 

Sister shook her head. “ No, we won’t,” she 
responded; “look at all the maple leaves there are 
heaped up all along back of this house. We can bring 
in a lot of them and pile them up in the corner, and 
spread a quilt over them and then we’ll have a nice 
bed and have the other quilt to put over us. But I 
did hope there would be a stove,” she concluded re- 
gretfully. 

“ We can’t cook our potatoes after all,” declared 
Lamb. 

“ We’ll build a little fire outside somewhere and 
roast them. But now we must bring in just as many 
leaves as we can,” and both the little girls were soon 
busily at work bringing in leaves and heaping them 
up in one corner of the room. 

They had not fastened the pony, and indeed forgot 
all about him in their efforts to make as good a bed 
as possible ; and when Sister declared that it was just 
as easy as could be, a statement which she proved by 


58 Grandpa s L,ittle Girls 

stretching herself upon it out at full length, then 
they began to think of home. 

“Jet’s gone!” exclaimed Lamb. “Look, Sister, 
he’s started for home ! ” And, sure enough, there 
were the marks where the pony had turned about and 
trotted off toward home. 

“ Oh, dear 1 ” said Sister, “ we must hurry after 
him just as fast as we can,” and they both started on 
a run toward the main road. 

“ Perhaps he will stop to feed on the way, he’s so 
lazy,” panted Lamb, but not a glimpse did they get 
of him. Constance ran much more swiftly than her 
sister, and in spite of Lamb’s calls to “ wait I wait ! ” 
was soon a long distance ahead. 

“ If she catches Jet she will just have to come 
back and get me,” resolved Lamb, sitting down on a 
convenient rock near the road. “ I’m awfully tired,” 
she continued, “and I’m sleepy, too, and it’s all Sis- 
ter’s fault making me get up last night, and every- 
thing.” Lamb began to feel very sorry for herself. 
“ I know what I’ll do,” she resolved ; “ I’ll go up this 
little wood-road and hide and let Sister look for me,” 
and Lamb ran a little way up the path, and then sat 
down again leaning against a big tree, for the little 
girl was really very tired. 


At School 


59 


Sister ran on and on and still did not overtake the 
pony. ‘‘ He must have got home/’ she concluded, as 
she came in sight of Pine Tree farm, “ and then father 
will say that I ought to have fastened him.” 

As she reached the gate she turned to look for 
Lamb, and called her name. ‘‘I guess she will be 
along in a minute,” she decided, and walked on 
toward the shed where Mr. Eben Bean was at work. 

“ What have you done with your team ? ” ques- 
tioned Mr. Bean. 

“ Hasn’t Jet come home ? ” asked Constance. 

Mr. Bean shook his head. 

“Well,” explained the little girl, “Lamb and I got 
out to get some leaves, and left the pony standing 
under a tree, and first thing we knew he was gone.” 

“ What made you think he came toward home ? ” 
questioned Mr. Bean. 

“We could see where he turned the cart round.” 

Mr. Bean nodded. “ That’s pretty good evidence,” 
he said, “ but he may have turned off on to another 
road. Where’s Lamb ? ” 

“ Oh, she’s coming,” replied Constance. “ I run 
faster than she does.” 

“ We’ll start right after Jet,” declared Mr. Bean. 
“ He may have got into trouble somewhere.” And, 


6o 


Grandpa s L,ittle Girls 

with Sister trotting after him, Eben strode down the 
road. He looked carefully for the tracks of the pony 
cart as he walked along. 

“Jet hasn’t come this far,” he declared when he 
came to the first turn in the road. “And where is 
Lamb ? ” 

“ She is coming,” said Constance ; but as they went 
on and on and finally came to the schoolhouse road 
and saw no trace either of Jet or Lamb, Constance 
began to feel alarmed. 

“ I believe Lamb is hiding,” she said bravely. “ I 
wouldn’t wait when she called me, and perhaps she 
thought that she would hide.” 

Mr. Bean made no reply, and the two turned and 
began walking toward home. Constance began to 
feel very tired. Her feet ached, and she felt ready to 
cry, but she kept bravely on. Mr. Bean could not 
find any trace of Lamb or of the pony, and now he 
became anxious about the little girl. It was late in 
the afternoon when he and Constance reached home, 
and Constance went into the kitchen to tell her story 
to her mother, while Eben told her father. In a few 
minutes the father and grandfather and Eben were 
hurrying back down the road. Jimmie Woodyear 
had just started for home. 


At School 


6i 


The men searched the roadsides carefully, but could 
see no footprints of child or pony, and all sorts of 
fears began to take possession of them. It grew 
dark, and Grandfather Newman returned to the farm 
to get lanterns and to reassure the family, although, 
he was beginning to lose courage himself. He had 
just turned into the driveway when he heard the 
patter of hoofs behind him, and looking around saw 
Jet coming swiftly toward home. In the pony cart 
sat Lamb smiling as happily as if she had not been 
the cause of so much anxiety. 

“ Grandfather ! ” she called out, as she came up 
beside him, “ what do you think ! I sat down to rest 
and I went fast asleep, and first thing I knew I woke 
up and Jet’s nose was right in my face ; and it was 
all shadowy in the wood-road. And I got into the 
wagon and we came right home!” Lamb wondered 
why her mother hugged her so closely and why they 
were all so glad to see her. Grandfather decided that 
Jet had turned up the wood -road and on his way out 
had found Lamb and stopped beside her. 

“ I’m glad Jet waited until I woke up,” said Lamb, 
“for it was so shadowy and lonesome I guess I would 
have been frightened.” 

Grandfather Newman got out the big horn and 


62 Grandpa s Gittle Girls 

blew three times, and in a short time Mr. Newman 
and Eben hurried into the yard, and were glad enough 
to find Lamb and Jet safe at home. 

“ ril wait for you next time. Lamb,” whispered 
Sister, when they sat down for supper. Both the 
girls were so tired that they were glad enough to go 
to bed early that night, and even Sister was too 
sleepy to talk over the day’s adventures. 

The time for starting for school was drawing very 
near. Their trunks had been brought down from the 
attic, the new dresses were all finished, and grand- 
mother had a box of fruit cookies all ready to put in 
as a surprise for the girls when they should unpack 
the trunk. Sister and Lamb had not made a second 
visit to the schoolhouse, but they had several packages 
to take with them when the time should come for 
their great adventure. Miss Abitha told them every 
day of some new pleasure that was awaiting them at 
school, but Sister did not waver in her determination 
not to go. 

“We’ll have a lovely time at the schoolhouse,” she 
assured Lamb, “ and we will only stay just long 
enough so Miss Wilson won’t take us for the fall 
term.” 

“ How long will that be ? ” questioned Lamb. 


At School 


63 


“Just two days,” declared Sister; “for mother says 
now that she won’t start until the day before school 
begins. We will go down to the schoolhouse the 
night before, and we will stay two days.” 

“ We’ll have to go in the dark,” objected Lamb. 

“It will be fun! ” insisted Sister; “and I’m going 
to take one of grandfather’s lanterns and some 
matches, so that we can have a light if we want to.” 

The day before Mrs. Newman planned to start for 
the school Miss Abitha brought over the two packages 
containing the gymnasium suits. Each one was 
neatly done up and on the paper was written “Not to 
be opened until you have been at school a week.” 
And both the little girls wondered what could be 
inside. 

“ It’s sure to be something nice,” said Constance ; 
“ but it will be just as nice to have it at home 
whatever it is.” 

“But Miss Abitha said it was just for school,” 
objected Lamb, “and perhaps if we don’t go to 
school we can’t have it.” 

Everything was ready for the next day’s journey 
when Constance and Lamb went up-stairs. Their 
trunks were locked and strapped. Their pretty suits 
of cashmere, with their new hats, lay waiting to be 


64 Grandpa s L.ittle Girls 

put on the next morning ; and they had said good-bye 
to Jimmie Woody ear. “ But we may see you very 
soon, Jimmie, sooner than you think,” Lamb had said, 
and Constance had added, “ I shouldn’t be surprised 
if we didn’t go to school now,” and Jimmie had 
laughed, and said that he guessed it would be Christ- 
mas time before they would be home. “ And by that 
time I shall own an acre of land,” he declared ; “and 
perhaps we can have a picnic on my clearing.” 


CHAPTEE YI 


THE RUNAWAYS 

It seemed a long time to Constance and Lamb be- 
fore the house grew quiet for the night. 

“ I know it’s ten o’clock,” complained Lamb, as the 
two girls drew packages and bundles from various 
hiding-places, “ and we have so many things to 
carry.” 

“ Sshh ! ” warned Constance, “ don’t take your night- 
dress, Lamb. I guess you can sleep in your clothes 
for a couple of nights.” 

At last they were ready for another midnight 
excursion. Constance carried a good-sized tin pail 
filled with a variety of useful articles. In it were six 
eggs, a package of matches, two tin cups, doughnuts 
and cookies. The latter were more or less dry and 
hard, having been brought from the kitchen closet 
some days before. She also carried a paper bundle 
containing a brush and comb, a hatchet, and a pair of 
scissors. 

Lamb’s burden consisted of two loaves of bread 
tied up in a newspaper, and an apple pie. 

65 


66 


Grandpa s Gittle Girls 

“ We shall have to keep our shoes on this time,” 
whispered Constance ; ‘‘ so step easy.” 

It was hard work to keep the apple pie properly bal- 
anced, and at the same time remember to set each foot 
down cautiously. As she went down the stairs Lamb 
recalled the fact that Grandmother Newman’s apple 
pies were deliciously juicy, and this was freshly baked. 
The plate had felt warm to Lamb’s hands when 
she carried it up the back stairs that very after- 
noon. 

“ I know that pie leaked all the way down-stairs,” 
announced Lamb as they reached the yard in safety. 

“ Never mind,” responded Sister, “ we must walk 
just as fast as we can till we get out of sight of the 
house, then we needn’t hurry. It’s awful dark.” 

“ Oh, Sister ! Where’s the lantern ? ” demanded 
Lamb. 

“ I forgot it ! ” acknowledged Sister so humbly that 
Lamb did not reproach her, and they kept on in 
silence. Lamb endeavored to carry the pie without 
tipping it too much to one side on the other, but the 
bundle of bread made it very difficult. 

“ My hands are all sticky,” she declared, “ and I’m 
just as sure as sure can be that my dress is all covered 
with pie juice.” 


At School 


67 

“Never mind,” comforted Sister; “it’s your old 
plaid dress, so it’s no matter.” 

They stopped to rest several times, but long before 
the old schoolhouse was reached both the little girls 
were thoroughly tired out. They stumbled over the 
dilapidated steps and stood in the dark little building. 
Constance managed to find her matches, and by their 
fitful flame the girls set down their burdens and then 
crept toward the bed of leaves in the corner and drew 
the blanket over them. 

“ Isn’t this fun ! ” whispered Sister. Lamb was too 
sleepy to respond. But she did not think it was fun 
at all. However bad school might be Lamb was quite 
sure that it was better than these dreadful midnight 
excursions, and dark unfamiliar surroundings. 

Sister was very tired, but she did not go to sleep. 
She could hear so many strange noises. And as she 
lay staring into the darkness she became perfectly 
sure that some animal shared the shelter of the old 
schoolhouse. She heard soft footfalls across the old 
floor, and once, reaching her hand toward the wall 
she knew that she touched warm fur, and starting up 
she saw two yellow eyes not far away. 

Sister gasped in terror. Then she heard the over- 
turn of her tin pail, and a satisfied little bark which 


68 Grandpa s L,ittle Girls 

someway reminded her of Shep, and she sprang to her 
feet calling out “ Shoo ! Shoo ! so vigorously that 
the echo of her voice came back to her. Whatever 
her visitor was it escaped through one of the shutter- 
less windows and no further noise disturbed her. But 
she could not sleep. It seemed a long time since she 
had kissed her mother and father good-night. She 
began to feel sorry for them. “ I’m afraid they will 
be worried,” she sighed, and just then a new sound 
came to her ears. It was the soft patter of rain. 
“ Oh, dear,” thought Sister, “ if it rains what will we 
do?” Lamb slept soundly on. Wild animals might 
come and go, storms might gather, but Lamb was 
oblivious of the troubles that surrounded her. Toward 
morning Sister’s eyes closed, and so soundly did both 
the children sleep that the morning was well advanced 
before they awoke. 

Outside the rain was falling heavily. The branches 
of the trees made a lonely creaking sound in the wind, 
and the two girls crawled out from under their 
blanket with nothing very pleasant to look upon or 
to think about. 

“It’s awful cold,” said Lamb; “and look, Sister, 
it’s raining in at the windows and down through the 
roof.” 


At School 


69 

“Look at your pie,” exclaimed Sister; “you put it 
on the floor upside down. The plate is on top.” 

“Then I brought it upside down all the way,” 
wailed Lamb, “ for I set it down just as careful. 
Look at your tin pail, Sister, it’s rolling over.” 

Sister picked up the pail and took off the cover, and 
at the sight of its contents she was ready to cry. The 
eggs were broken and had reduced the dry cookies to 
a mass of uneatable mixture of shells, eggs and crumbs. 
The tincups were rescued, and set out on the floor. 
The pie had been saved by its thick paper wrapping, 
but its juices had escaped, as the front of Lamb’s dress 
testified. 

“Well, we’ve got the bread,” announced Sister; 
“ and we left potatoes and apples here, so we shan’t 
starve.” 

“ Where is the bread ? ” asked Lamb. The news- 
paper in which it had been wrapped lay upon the 
floor, but there was no sign of the bread. 

“0-ob,” wailed Sister, “that animal ate it,” and 
then she told the story of her wakeful night to Lamb, 
whose terror grew with every word. 

“ Let’s go right home,” exclaimed Lamb. “ He may 
come right back and get us. Oh ! ” and her scream 
was echoed by Constance for just then a yellow head 


7 ° 


Grandpa s Gittle Girls 

with pointed ears appeared at the window, and, fright- 
ened by the girls’ screams quickly disappeared. 

“ It was only a fox,” said Sister ; “ and I do believe 
it was one of our own foxes that we tamed two years 
ago.” 

But Lamb was not to be comforted or reassured. 
“We haven’t anything to eat but this pie,” she said; 
“ and I’m sure I never can stay another night in this 
dreadful place.” 

“ You’ll have to go away to school if you don’t stay 
here until to-morrow,” announced Sister with a brave 
effort to make the best of circumstances. “ I guess 
we can stand it one day and another night rather than 
go to school where we can’t have our pony or our 
kittens or anything, and only come home on vaca- 
tions.” 

Lamb was peering about the room. “ There’s 
rats ! ” she exclaimed. “I saw two rats close by our 
bed. Sister, I’m going home now ! I am ! You 
needn’t try to stop me. I’d go to school a thousand 
years before I’d stay another minute where there’s 
foxes and rats walking all over you.” 

“ But look at it rain,” objected Sister ; “ it just 
pours.” 

“ I don’t care. I’ll put a quilt over me,” responded 


At School 


71 


Lamb, “and I guess my mother will say I did just 
right to come home.” Lamb was now pulling the top 
quilt from the bed of leaves, and Constance watched 
her doubtfully. Before this she had always been the 
leader; the one to suggest and carry out all their 
plans, but there was such a determined energy in 
Lamb’s words and actions that Constance realized 
that her little sister would do exactly as she said; 
that she would wrap the quilt about her and start 
out in the pouring rain for Pine Tree farm. 

“Here, Sister,” commanded Lamb, “you put this 
other quilt over you and we’ll start right off.” 

Sister obeyed, and Grandmother Hewman’s best 
quilts were soon trailing along the muddy road as 
Lamb and Sister plodded on toward home. 

The absence of Sister and Lamb was discovered 
early that morning. “They have run away, of 
course,” said their mother ; “ perhaps they have run 
as far as the barn chamber, or they may not be farther 
than the attic.” So both these places were carefully 
searched. Grandmother Hewman discovered that her 
best quilts were missing as well as a pie and two 
loaves of bread, and then it was decided that the young 
adventurers had gone to the brush wigwam in the 
pasture ; and Mr. Eben Bean immediately started in 


72 


Grandpa s Little Girls 

that direction. When he returned with no trace of 
the runaways Grandfather JS'ewman showed some 
anxiety, but young Mrs. Newman said they were 
safely hidden somewhere. 

“It is all my fault,’’ declared Miss Abitha; “you 
know I told them that I ran away, and I suppose the 
poor dears think that it’s the proper thing to do.” 

“ It convinces me that it’s time they were at school,” 
said their father. “ I knew they didn’t want to go, but 
I had no idea they would run away.” 

“ Well,” remarked grandfather thoughtfully, “ now 
that you see just how the girls feel about going away 
I hope you’ll realize that home is the place for them. 
Their grandmother can teach them considerable, so 
can their mother, and a better teacher than Abitha I 
don’t wish to see,” and Grandfather Newman looked at 
the little group about him for a moment and then con- 
cluded, “give up this school notion once and for all. 
I’ll buy ’em a piano and they can take music lessons ! ” 

“ Jabez,” there was a reproving tone in grandmother’s 
voice, “you know that when we had charge of the 
children we were very careful not to overindulge 
them, or spoil them in any way ; and now their 
mother and father feel just the same. They want them 
to have good school advantages.” 


At School 


73 


“Well, well,” responded grandfather, “no knowing 
where those poor children are now ; heart-broken, like 
as not, to think that we want to send them away,” and 
grandfather started olf on another trip to the 
barns. 

It was early in the afternoon when Jimmie Wood- 
year saw two strange figures plodding along toward 
the farm. At the first look he decided that they were 
Indians, but a more careful glance convinced him that 
it was Sister and Lamb. 

“ Look, Mr. Bean, look ! ” he exclaimed. 

“ I swan ! ” ejaculated Eben, “ don’t that beat all ! ” 

A few minutes later and the dripping quilts fell 
on the porch floor and two untidy little girls stepped 
into the kitchen. 

“ Oh ! My dear grandmother ! ” exclaimed Lamb, 
“ there were rats, and a fox walked round us, and the 
pie leaked, and I’m so hungry.” 

After a warm bath and dry clothes and a good 
luncheon the children related their adventures in full. 
They told of taking out the quilt s at night, and of 
their plans to stay at the schoolhouse until too late 
to start for Miss Wilson’s. As Grandfather I^’ewman 
listened he remembered stories that he had heard of 
indulged children growing into useless men and women, 


74 Grandpa s Gittle Girls 

and the family were all surprised when he remarked 
with some firmness : 

“ It is an excellent plan for girls to go to school, 
to a good school. I suppose, daughter, that you will 
start for Miss Wilson’s, with these girls to-morrow ? ” 

“ Yes,” responded young Mrs. Newman, “ we will go 
to-morrow on the early train.” 

“ Have we got to go to school after all ? ” asked 
Sister in apparent surprise. 

“Certainly,” said her father. 

Sister looked about for some trace of sympathy on 
the faces she loved best ; they looked as if they 
expected her to be glad to leave them ; even Lamb was 
so happily engaged with an apple tart as to be ob- 
livious of all trouble. Just then Sister remembered 
Lamb’s plan, and she said slowly, “ Well, we don’t 
want to go, and if you take us it will be useless, for 
you will just have to send and fetch us home.” 

“ Oh, I guess you’ll like it real well, dear,” said 
grandmother, “ and we shall all look forward to your 
coming home at Christmas time.” 

“We shall be home before that,” responded Con- 
stance gloomily. 

The next day the sun shone brightly. Sister and 
Lamb were dressed in their pretty new dresses and 


At School 


75 

hats, and started off with their mother for Miss Wilson’s 
school. 

“ We’ll try your plan now, Lamb,” Sister whispered 
as they got into the car. 

“ What plan ? ” questioned Lamb. 

‘‘ Why, about doing things that the teachers don’t 
like so they will send us home from school.” 

“ Oh, yes ; well, I’m sure that’s a much better plan 
than that old schoolhouse,” responded Lamb. 

“ Wait and see,” said Sister gloomily. 


CHAPTER YII 


THE FIRST WEEK AT SCHOOL 

“ Well, Eunice, you are the youngest pupil in the 
school,” said Miss Wilson, as she welcomed the little 
girls. Lamb looked at her mother anxiously. To be 
called “ Eunice ” made home seem a long way off. 
But Mrs. Newman did not appear to think it a matter 
of consequence. Indeed she had decided that it would 
be well if the girls should now be called by their proper 
names, Constance and Eunice, instead of “Sister” 
and “ Lamb.” 

Miss Wilson’s school was pleasantly situated on a 
hill. It was some distance from the highway. Miss 
Wilson’s house where the girls lived was a square 
white house with wings, and broad piazzas. There 
were beautiful trees about the place, and as they drove 
through the grounds the girls noticed the lake of 
which Miss Abitha had told them. Beside the house 
there was the school building. This building con- 
tained the recitation rooms, library and gymnasium. 

It was early in the afternoon when the Newmans 
76 


At School 


77 


arrived, and Mrs. Newman was to remain until the 
next morning and then return to the farm. That 
afternoon she took Constance and Eunice on some of 
the walks she had enjoyed when a girl, and then 
helped them unpack their trunks. 

“ Here is a present from Miss Abitha,” she said, 
“ but she does not wish you to open the packages 
until you have been here a week.” 

The room which the girls were to occupy was in 
one of the wings. It had two windows from which 
you could see the lake and the main road. There 
were two single beds in the room, two small bureaus, 
several chairs, and a small desk. There was a dress- 
ing-room with hot and cold water, which seemed very 
remarkable to Lamb. 

When they went into the dining-room for supper 
Lamb said “oh,” very softly. For she had not 
thought much about the girls of the school, and here 
they all were, twenty of them. 

There were two tables with ten girls and two teach- 
ers at each table. Miss Wilson told them they were 
to sit at her table, and then introduced them to the 
girls. The girl next to Lamb seemed very large, “ al- 
most grown-up,” Lamb thought to herself. Her name 
was Eose Mason. 


78 Grandpa s Gittle Girls 

“ You’re pretty young to come to boarding-school, 
aren’t you ? ” she asked. 

“ I’m ’most eleven,” answered Lamb, “ and I had to 
come because my sister did.” 

“ Oh ! How old is your sister ? ” questioned the tall 
girl, looking at Constance. 

‘‘ She is thirteen,” answered Lamb proudly. 

“ Well, then, she’s old enough to belong to our 
club.” 

“ What is a club ? ” asked Lamb wonderingly. 

The tall girl smiled at her so kindly that Lamb was 
sure a club must be something very nice, and said : 

“ Why, a club is a number of people who like to do 
the same things ; and they hold meetings, and have a 
president, and all that. Our club is the ‘ J. F. F.’ 
Club, and I’m the president. We don’t take in any 
member younger than thirteen.” 

“ What is ‘ J. F. F.’ ? ” asked Lamb. 

Eose laughed again. “ That’s a secret,” she replied, 
‘‘ that’s one of our by-laws. Every member solemnly 
promises not to tell the meaning of ‘ J. F. F.’ ” 

This seemed very remarkable to Lamb, and she was 
so much interested in what Eose told her that she 
forgot how many miles away she was from Pine Tree 
farm. 


At School 


79 


Constance, too, had been hearing about the club 
from the girl beside her. This girl was short. She 
was not much taller than Lamb, but she was very 
plump, and was nearly fifteen years old. Her hair was 
black and curly, and she had black eyes, and a dimple 
in each cheek. Constance thought that she looked 
exactly like her doll “ Jabezza.” This girFs name was 
Myrtle Green. 

“ I suppose you think my name is funny ? ” she 
said, with a little laugh, looking at Constance. 

“ It’s a pretty name,” Constance answered politely. 

“ Do you think so ? Well, I don’t. But it’s better 
than my sister’s; her name is Ivy. Just think, ‘Ivy 
Green ’ ! I wouldn’t care so much,” she continued, 
“ if the girls didn’t make up verses about me.” 

“ What kind of verses ? ” asked Constance. 

“ Oh, like this : 

‘ Green, green the myrtle grows, 

See how plain the color shows. 

Green, green, green as grass, 

See the myrtle as you pass, 

Green grows the myrtle.’ 

“ I guess you wouldn’t think it was funny if it was 
your name,” she concluded, when Constance began to 
laugh. 


8o 


Grandpa s Gittle Girls 

“ I guess I shouldn’t care,” replied Constance. “ At 
home my grandfather called me ‘ Peter,’ and I rather 
liked it.” 

“ Then I shall call you ‘ Peter,’ but I shan’t let Miss 
Wilson hear me. She doesn’t like nicknames.” 

“ Doesn’t she ? ” responded Constance, and resolved 
to tell Lamb that she had discovered one thing they 
could do toward making Miss Wilson send them home. 

“ I am secretary of the ‘ J. F. F.’ Club,” announced 
Myrtle. “ Perhaps after you’ve been here awhile 
some of the girls may ask you to join.” 

Constance wondered what the “ J. F. F.” Club was, 
but she had resolved not to ask any questions. 

‘‘ We may not be here very long,” she responded, 

so I guess I shall not join anything.” 

“ You’ll be here a year,” announced Myrtle with so 
much confidence that Constance looked at her anx- 
iously. 

“ How do you know ? ” she asked. 

“ Because, Miss Wilson won’t take a girl for less 
than a year, and most girls stay two and three years,” 
explained Myrtle. “We have real good times, too,” 
she added. 

There was a good deal for Sister and Lamb to talk 
about that night when they were alone in their room. 


At School 


8i 


“Do you suppose everybody is going to call me 
‘ Eunice ’ ? It makes me feel just as if I was grand- 
mother,’’ complained Lamb. 

“ I shall call you Lamb,” replied Constance, “ and I 
want you to call me ‘ Peter ’ or ‘ Sister ’ whenever 
Miss Wilson can hear you. For I’ve found out that 
she doesn’t like nicknames ; so if we want her to send 
us home we must begin doing things right away.” 

“ If mother was going to stay here I’d like to stay 
awhile,” ventured Lamb. 

“ Well, she isn’t going to stay. She is going early 
in the morning,” answered Constance. 

“ I’m too young to be a ‘ J. F. F.,’ ” continued Lamb. 
“ Rose Mason said I was, but she said that you could 
belong.” 

“ I don’t want to,” declared Constance. “ I shan’t 
join anything. I told that fat girl next me. Myrtle 
Green, that we shouldn’t be here long. And we can 
begin to do things by being late to breakfast to- 
morrow morning. Miss Wilson won’t like that. 
We’ll oversleep.” 

It proved rather a difficult matter to carry out 
this plan, for at seven o’clock the rising bell sounded 
through all the halls, so that even sleepy Lamb was 
wide awake. 


82 


Grandpa s Gittle Girls 

“ Don’t get up,” commanded Constance ; “ we won’t 
get up until the breakfast bell rings.” 

At half-past seven the bell rang again, and then 
Constance and Lamb began slowly to make their prep- 
arations for breakfast. It was after eight when they 
tried the dining-room door. 

“ It’s locked ! ” announced Constance, but just 
then the door was opened by a pleasant-faced waitress. 

“ I guess you are the little girls who came yester- 
day,” she said ; ‘‘ so you can have your breakfast. 
But after this you must mind the bells or you won’t 
get any breakfast.” 

“ Where is our mother ? ” demanded Lamb, looking 
about the vacant dining-room. 

Just then Miss Wilson came into the room. She 
greeted the little girls pleasantly. 

“ Too bad you slept too late to see your mother off,” 
she said. 

“ Has mother gone ? ” both voices rose in a wail, 
and four anxious eyes were fixed on Miss Wilson. 

“ Yes,” came the brief answer, but Lamb became 
conscious of a tender clasp about her shoulders, and 
even Constance yielded to the arm which drew her 
into a comforting embrace. 

Nothing was said about coming down so late. 


At School 


83 


Neither Constance nor Lamb remembered to say 
“Peter” or “Lamb,” but listened to what Miss Wil- 
son had to tell them about their studies. After break- 
fast they found Myrtle Green waiting to go with them 
to the school building. They both felt homesick and 
deserted, but there were so many girls about that 
Lamb as well as Constance resolved not to let them 
see her cry. 

“ If I am the youngest girl here I^m not a baby,” 
Lamb decided, and Constance was already comforting 
herself with the thought that she would soon be home 
again. 

“ I’ll be sent home or I’ll run away and go home,” 
she resolved, when her books were given her and the 
tasks for the morning decided upon. 

“ Shall we be late to-morrow morning ? ” asked 
Lamb when the sisters found themselves together at 
luncheon. 

Constance nodded. “ Yes, we shall,” she said ; 
“ and we’ll be late to supper to-night. You go up to 
our room just before supper and so will I and we 
won’t come down until supper is all over. We’ll be 
late to everything now right along.” 

“ Perhaps we won’t get any supper if we are late,” 
suggested Lamb. 


84 Grandpa’s L,ittle Girls 

‘‘ I hope we won’t,” declared Constance. “ I guess 
our father won’t let us stay here very long if they 
don’t give us enough to eat.” 

Lamb made no response. Myrtle Green had been 
telling her about the gymnasium, and about the 
Saturday afternoon walks, and the lovely fudge that 
Eose Mason could make ; and the little girl was be^ 
ginning to think that school was not so bad a place 
after all. Several of the older girls had spoken to her, 
and she was sure that Myrtle Green was one of the 
nicest girls in the world. 

The supper bell sounded that night but Constance 
and Eunice sat silent in their room. In a few 
minutes, however, there came a rap at the door and 
Miss Wilson entered. 

“ Supper is all ready, my dears,” she said kindly, 
and there was nothing to do but go down to the din- 
ing-room. After supper that night Eose Mason sug- 
gested a game of dominoes and the hour passed very 
quickly. 

“We’ll be late to-morrow just the same,” Constance 
whispered as the two girls went up-stairs to bed. 

At the end of their first week in her house Miss 
Wilson began to be puzzled about the Newman girls. 
They were late at every meal, they were late at 


At School 


85 


recitations, and they persisted in calling each other 
nicknames. She had excused them to herself think- 
ing that it was their first week away from home and 
that they would soon understand that the school rules 
must be obeyed. But she resolved to have a talk with 
them within a short time. 

“We have been here a week,” announced Lamb. 
“ Kow we can open Miss Abitha’s present,” and in a 
few moments the little girls were exclaiming over the 
pretty gymnasium suits. Myrtle Green was called in 
to see and admire. 

“Put them on and come over to the gymnasium 
this afternoon,” suggested Myrtle. “Miss Wilson 
will be there and she’ll see what you can do. I’ll 
come after you.” 

“ I don’t know as we’d better,” objected Constance. 
“ You see we don’t expect to stay very long.” 

“ Nonsense,” replied Myrtle ; “ didn’t I tell you 
that you’d have to stay a year anyway ? But if you 
keep on being late to everything you won’t stay, for 
Miss Wilson will send you home.” 

Constance turned a triumphant look toward her 
sister, but Lamb was admiring the new suit and did 
not see it. 

“Perhaps you can get on the basket-ball team,” 


86 


Grandpa s Gittle Girls 

continued Myrtle. “ You’re tall for your age, and 
Kose Mason, the captain, likes tall girls.” 

“ What’s basket-ball ? ” questioned Constance, and 
became so interested in Myrtle’s explanation of the 
game that she entirely forgot that she did not mean 
to remain at the school. 


CHAPTER YIII 

A DIFFICULT LESSON 

Rose Mason watched Constance Newman approv- 
ingly. It was Constance’s first day in the gymnasium 
and Rose had at once decided that she must persuade 
this new girl to join the basket-ball team. Rose was 
nearly sixteen. She had attended Miss Wilson’s 
school two years and had come to be the leader of 
the school games. Most of the girls had great con- 
fidence in Rose Mason, and to be singled out by her 
as a companion for a walk or an excursion of any sort 
was looked upon as a great honor. 

When Constance was ready to leave the gymnasium 
Rose approached her and said pleasantly : 

‘‘I’m glad you are to be here this year. I’ve been 
noticing that you’ve good arms and a steady head and 
I want you to learn basket-ball. I’m captain of the 
team here, and we need one more. Myrtle Green backed 
out, and it’s just as well, she isn’t tall enough anyway.” 

“ I don’t know much about the game,” responded 
Constance. 

“ Oh, I’ll teach you. We have practice to-morrow 
and if you’ll come in you will get a good start.” 

87 


88 


Grandpa s Gittle Girls 

Constance was pleased at Rose’s attention, and 
when Myrtle Green told her that they wanted her 
to join the “ J. F. F.” Club she began to agree with 
Miss Abitha that there were lots of nice girls at school. 

“ It’s a secret club,” explained Myrtle ; “ the initia- 
tion fee is twenty-five cents, and members are assessed 
ten cents each month. Twice a year we have enter- 
tainments and a spread and ask the teachers. Of 
course if you join you have to be initiated and promise 
never to reveal the secrets of the club. We meet 
every Monday night in each other’s rooms.” 

“ Do all the girls belong ? ” questioned Constance. 

“Well, I guess not,” responded Myrtle loftily. 
“You have to be thirteen before you are eligible 
for membership anyway, and four girls here are only 
twelve.” 

“ Do all the others belong ? ” 

Myrtle tried to look very mysterious, and shook her 
head. 

“No-o,” she answered slowly, “you see there’s a 
number of new girls just come in and Rose Mason 
isn’t sure about them yet. There are only six mem- 
bers now, and the membership is limited to ten.” 

Constance began to realize that the “ J. F. F.” Club 
was really an important affair. 


At School 89 

“ I guess I should like to join, that is if I stay,” she 
decided. 

“ Then you better change some of your ways,” 
announced Myrtle firmly. “If you keep on being 
late all the time, and not answering promptly when 
the teachers speak to you, and calling your sister 
‘ Lamb,’ when you have been told to call her Eunice, 
why you’ll find yourself going home in a hurry.” 

Constance looked at Myrtle in surprise. Was it 
possible that any girl could think it a misfortune to 
be sent home ? 

“ Of course,” Myrtle continued, “ you have never 
been away from home before and don’t realize how 
badly it looks to always be late for everything, meals, 
recitations, and all. And of course none of us blame 
your little sister, she’s only a baby anyway, but the 
older girls think it’s funny of you. Did Eose Mason 
say anything to you about it ? ” 

“ JS'o, she didn’t,” began Constance angrily ; she was 
just about to add that it wasn’t any of Eose Mason’s 
business, when she remembered about the basket-ball 
team and said no more. But that night Constance 
hurried Lamb into the dining-room in such good 
season that they were the first to sit down to supper. 
And she called her sister “ Eunice ” several times with 


90 Grandpa s Gittle Girls 

such distinctness that Lamb began to look at her 
anxiously. 

The next morning Constance was out of bed at the 
first sound of the rising bell and at Lamb’s suggestion, 
“Why, Sister, we shan’t be late at all,” responded 
vigorously, “I don’t want to be late. The girls all 
tliink it’s horrid to be late.” So Lamb brushed her 
hair vigorously, tied her shoes rapidlj^ and followed 
her sister down-stairs. 

As they sat down to breakfast Constance noticed 
an envelope beside her plate. It was addressed to 
“Miss Constance Newman,” and she slipped it into 
her pocket, and hurried through her breakfast and out 
into the hall to read it. 

The letter was from Miss Wilson, and as Constance 
read a new and unknown feeling took possession of 
her. The note read : 

“ My dear Constance : — 

“ I see that you are not happy here, and that 
you are not disposed to obey the rules of the school. 
During the two weeks that you have been here you 
have been careful to annoy your teachers in every 
possible way. I have therefore decided to write your 
parents in regard to the matter and ask them to come 
and take you home. 

“ Your friend, 

“Mary Wilson.” 


At School 


9 ‘ 


The girl crushed the note in her hand. She wanted 
to cry, but the girls were coming out from breakfast. 
Lamb had gone happily off to school with some ol* 
the younger girls. Constance ran out of the house 
and walked down toward the lake. What should she 
do ? Thanks to Myrtle Green she realized that to be 
sent home was a disgrace. That it would be because 
she could not behave as well as these other girls, 
“ and some of them only twelve years old,” she said 
aloud. Then she remembered about the “ J. F. F.” 
Club, and the basket-ball team, and Rose Mason. “I 
wonder what she’d think about me if I am sent 
home,” thought Constance. 

She stayed so long by the lake that she was late at 
the morning recitation and Miss Wilson looked at 
her disapprovingly. She could not think about her 
lesson, and so made a failure v>"hen called upon to 
recite. As the girls left the recitation room Miss 
Wilson said, ‘‘Constance Newman will please keep 
her seat,” and in a few moments the girl was alone 
with her teacher. 

Miss Wilson came and sat down beside Constance. 

“ Have you been homesick here, my dear ? ” she 
asked. 

“ Not but a little,” answered Constance. 


92 Grandpa s Little Girls 

“ But you don’t like the girls ? ” 

“Oh, yes, I do,” quickly answered the girl. “I 
think Rose Mason is splendid and I like Myrtle 
Green.” 

“ But you would rather be at home ? ” 

“ Why, of course ! ” exclaimed Constance. 

“ Don’t you think that your mother and father will 
be sorry to have their daughter sent home ? ” 

Constance smiled at this. She remembered, how- 
ever, that the running away had made her father very 
angry and that even Grandfather Kewman did not 
approve of it. 

“ I guess if you send me home they won’t blame 
me,” she ventured; “and I wasn’t late to breakfast 
this morning.” 

“You were late at recitation.” 

“ I didn’t mean to be,” confessed Constance. “ I 
went off to think about this letter and I forgot how 
late it was.” 

At this Miss Wilson’s face softened into a smile and 
she looked at Constance more kindly. 

“ I am almost sorry to have you go,” she said, rising ; 
“but perhaps your mother can find another school 
where you will be happier. I wrote that I should ex- 
pect her to come for you this week, so you will only 


At School 


93 

have a few days more to stay,” and Miss Wilson rose 
and left the room. 

Constance looked after her in amazement. So it 
was as easy as this to be sent home. “ It was Lamb’s 
plan,” she thought ; “ she was the first one to think 
of it,” but she began to realize that she herself was the 
one to blame. She it was who had carried out the 
plan and she was the one to be blamed. 

The dinner-bell rang as she sat there. 

“ Now I’m late again,” she exclaimed and hurried 
out of the school building and ran across the driveway 
and into the house in time to take her seat with the 
others. 

Myrtle Green nodded at her approvingly. “You 
are doing first-rate,” she whispered. “ You haven’t 
been late for three meals.” 

Constance made no answer. She was sure that she 
would cry if she tried to speak. Lamb was telling 
Kose Mason that the younger girls were going to get 
up a club too. “ I guess I’ll be president,” she heard 
Lamb say, and realized that her little sister did not 
know of what had happened. “ Perhaps they are 
going to let Lamb stay,” she thought. 

“ Come on, Constance,” called Pose Mason as they 
left the dinner table, “get on your gym suit and I’ll 


94 


Grandpa s Gittle Girls 

show you how to throw the ball into the basket.” 
Constance nodded her acceptance and ran up-stairs. 
She sobbed a little as she put on the pretty serge suit. 
“ I guess Miss Abitha won’t ever like me again,” she 
thought, but hurried down to join Eose. 

A half-hour’s exercise with the ball found her in 
better spirits, and she began to wonder if there was 
not some way out of her trouble. Of course it would 
be lovely to be home again at Pine Tree farm. But 
to be sent home in disgrace was a different matter ; 
and even home would lose its charm if Lamb was not 
there, and Constance felt sure that Lamb was to 
remain at school. 

She wished she could ask Eose Mason what to do, 
but she was ashamed to tell her. Two days dragged 
miserably by, and then one afternoon, she saw Miss 
Abitha Bean standing at the door waiting for her. 
“ I suppose my mother was ashamed to come,” Con- 
stance thought. 

Miss Abitha seemed as happy as if she had not come 
on such a dreadful errand, and Constance looked at 
her reproachfully. Lamb thought it was the loveliest 
thing that could possibly happen to have Miss Abitha 
come for a visit, as Constance had not even told her 
little sister of Miss Wilson’s decision to send her home. 


At School 


95 


“One of iny very best pupils,” Miss Wilson had 
said when she introduced Miss Abitha to the girls. 
And Rose Mason said that her mother knew Miss 
Abitha, and in a short time there was a group of girls 
around the pleasant-faced woman and she was telling 
them what a beautiful place Pine Tree farm was, and 
of the good times she had as a girl at school. 

Constance listened sulkily. She began to feel ill- 
treated and misunderstood. Miss Abitha went up- 
stairs with the sisters that night. 

“ .Do you want me to help you pack, Constance ? 
You know we start early in the morning.” 

Then Constance threw herself on the little bed and 
cried heartily; and Lamb, hearing the story and 
realizing that she was to be left behind began to cry 
also, and Miss Abitha began to feel that she had a 
difficult task before her. 

“I don’t want to be sent home,” wailed Constance, 
and, “ I don’t want to be left all alone,” cried Lamb. 
But at last quiet was established. 

“I think that you can both stay here and be as 
happy as your mother and I were,” declared Miss 
Abitha. “ I am sure I can persuade Miss Wilson to 
let Constance stay.” 

At this Constance dried her eyes, and, after a little 


g6 G?'andpd s Gittle Girls 

more talk and many promises, Miss Abitha went in 
search of Miss Wilson and soon returned with a smil- 
ing face. 

“ I am going home in the morning,” she announced, 
“ but Constance is to stay and Lamb is to stay, and I 
shan’t see you again until you come home for the 
Christmas holidays ; and then we’ll all have a lovely 
time.” 


CHAPTER IX 


INITIATED INTO THE “ J. F. F.” 

“You have been voted into the ‘ J. F. F.’ Club, 
Constance,’’ Myrtle Green announced, about a week 
after Miss Abitha’s visit, “ and you are to be initiated 
in Rose Mason’s room to-morrow night at eight 
o’clock. You had better be on hand by quarter be- 
fore eight. Rap three times on her door. One long 
rap, and two short ones, then you will be admitted.” 

“What will I have to do?” Constance asked 
anxiously. 

“ Bring twenty-five cents,” responded Myrtle, “ and 
that’s all I can tell you.” 

Constance could hardly wait for the time to come. 
To be a member of a club seemed a very wonderful 
thing; and she wondered what the initiation would be. 
She had looked up the word “ initiation ” in the big 
dictionary in the library and found that it meant 
“ entrance,” “ admission,” “ reception.” This did not 
seem very terrifying, but Myrtle’s air of mystery 
made Constance sure that it was something out of the 
usual. 


97 


98 


Grandpa s Gittle Girls 

“You tell me all about it to-morrow, won’t you, 
Sister ? ” asked Lamb sleepily, as Constance was ready 
to start for Kose Mason’s room. 

“ No, indeed,” replied Constance, “ to belong to 
this club you have to promise never to repeat any of 
the by-laws or tell anything that happens. It is a 
secret club.” 

“Well, I hate secrets,” announced Lamb, “and we 
younger girls are going to have a club that anybody 
can belong to that knows how to skate, and I’m going 
to be president, and we are to meet on the lake every 
day right after afternoon session.” 

Constance laughed at Lamb’s idea of a club, and 
hurried down the corridor to Eose Mason’s room. 
She felt a little frightened as she gave the three raps 
and saw the door slowly open. 

“ Enter,” said a deep voice, and Constance stepped 
inside, and the door closed behind her and was 
quickly fastened. 

Fortunately Myrtle had given the new member of 
the “J. F. F.” Club the expectation of something 
unusual, so Constance did not exclaim at the strange 
figures she saw before her. The doorkeeper was 
attired in a trailing robe of crimson cambric. It hung 
in folds from her neck, and lay on the floor so that 



PAY YOUR INITIATION FEE 




At School 


99 


if she started to walk she was apt to stumble. On 
her head was a turban of the cambric and a square 
piece, with places cut for eye-holes, fell over the face. 

On the bed sat a tall figure all in white. So tall 
that its head seemed nearly to reach the ceiling, but 
when it spoke the voice seemed to come much lower 
down. Four other figures in white stood about the 
room, and as Constance entered two advanced and 
bowed before her. Then, each one took her by the 
hand and led her toward the tall figure on the bed. 

“Welcome,” exclaimed a gruff voice that Constance 
could not recognize. “ Are you prepared to join this 
club and swear that you will not reveal its secrets ?” 

“ Say, ‘ I am,’ ” whispered one of Constance’s at- 
tendants. 

“ I am.” 

, “ Pay your initiation fee,” commanded the voice, 
and Constance dropped her quarter into a small box 
that the figure extended toward her. 

“ Do j^ou solemnly promise to be a faithful club 
member, to attend all meetings, to stand by each and 
every member of the ‘ J. F. F.’ Club and to obey its 
rules ? ” 

“ Say, ‘I do,’ ” said the girl at Constance’s right 
hand. 


lOO 


Grandpa s L.ittle Girls 

‘‘ I do.” 

“ ’Tis well ! Her Highness, the Guardian of the 
Door, will approach,” commanded the voice ; and the 
figure in the crimson robe stumbled toward the bed 
and bowed low. 

“ Your Highness may conduct Constance Hewman 
to the end of the council chamber and reveal to her 
the meaning of ‘ J. F. F.,’ ” declared the voice. 

The two figures in white released Constance and 
the Guardian of the Door led her across the room and 
whispered three words in her ear. As she heard them 
Constance laughed, and a subdued giggle was heard 
from the direction of the bed. 

“Her Highness the Guardian of the Eobes will 
now bestow upon our sister the robe of membership,” 
came the command and in a moment a robe of 
white muslin was slipped over Constance’s head, the 
turban and mask were adjusted, and Constance’s 
initiation was over. 

“We will now hear the roll-call,” commanded the 
tall figure. 

“ Myrtle Green.” 

“ Here,” answered the figure in crimson. 

“ Kose Mason.” 

“ Here,” responded the tall figure on the bed, and 


At School 


101 


the others answered in turn. Then the “ robes of 
membership ” were slipped off and put carefully away 
in a large box. Eose Mason’s extreme height proved 
due to a dressed up broomstick which she had held in 
front of her. 

“I think ‘Just For Fun’ is a lovely name for a 
club,” declared Constance. 

“ Sshh ” sounded from all the other members, 

and, “ you must never speak it out loud,” sounded a 
chorus of voices. 

“ You see,” explained Eose, “ if we get in the habit 
of speaking the name we might do it before some of 
the younger girls, and then the letters wouldn’t mean 
anything, and the secret would be out.” 

In honor of the new member refreshments were 
served. Eose Mason had made a large dish of fudge, 
Myrtle Green brought a large bag of peanuts that she 
had bought on her last trip to the village ; and they 
devoured these delicacies and made plans for an en- 
tertainment to be given by the club just before the 
Christmas holidays. 

“ Go softly, girls,” said Eose, as the hour’s session 
came to an end ; “ don’t make any noise in going to 
your rooms or you may disturb the other girls, and 
then Miss Wilson won’t like it.” 


102 


Grandpa s Gittle Girls 

Constance tiptoed all the way to her room, for she 
wanted to be sure and not give Miss Wilson any 
reason for being displeased with her. Lamb was 
sound asleep, and did not waken, although she had 
meant to persuade Sister to tell her all about the 
“ J. F. F.” 

The next day was Saturday and Miss Wilson was 
to take ten of the younger girls on a nutting expedi- 
tion. Both Sister and Lamb had been included in the 
number. 

Directly after breakfast the little party were ready 
to start for the woods. There were baskets contain- 
ing the luncheon, and as they started off both Lamb 
and Sister were reminded of Miss Abitha’s picnics at 
Pine Tree farm. 

Constance found herself walking beside Miss 
Wilson. 

“ It seems as if Miss Abitha ought to be here,” said 
the little girl ; “ for every picnic we ever had she al- 
ways planned.” 

“ I wish she were here,” responded Miss Wilson 
cordially. “ She went to school to my elder sister, and, 
years ago, we tried to persuade Miss Abitha to come 
here as one of our teachers ; but she did not want to 
leave her father.” 


At School 


103 


“ She taught us at Pine Tree farm,” said Constance ; 
“ but it was fun to go to school to her. She played 
that her sitting-room was a schoolroom, and if we 
brought our dolls she would call them distinguished 
visitors, and have a lesson about the dolls of every 
country. And we had lessons about Jet, our pony, 
and about Shep, the dog, and about the kittens and 
everything,” and Constance sighed a little as she 
finished. 

“ That is just like Miss Abitha,” replied Miss Wilson 
cordially. “ She was a born teacher, and you and 
Eunice were very fortunate in her instruction.” 

“But we like your school now. Miss Wilson,” de- 
clared Constance ; and then, almost before she knew it 
Constance found herself telling Miss Wilson the whole 
story of not wanting to leave Pine Tree farm. Of 
the plan to run away and its failure, and then of 
thinking perhaps Miss Wilson would send them home. 

“ You see,” explained Constance, “ I didn’t know 
that the other girls thought it would be a disgrace to 
be sent home ; and I didn’t know that it would make 
my mother and father ashamed of us. But I found 
that out by what the girls said, and then of course I 
didn’t want to be sent home.” 

“ Of course you didn’t,” responded the teacher ; 


4 


104 Grandpa s Little Girls 

“ and don’t you think it was worth while to come away 
from home and learn what other girls think about 
things ? ” 

“ Y-e-s,” replied Constance slowly ; “ but we do have 
lovely times with grandfather.” 

After that day’s excursion Constance felt that Miss 
Wilson was a real friend, and she understood why 
Eose Mason and Myrtle Green were so anxious to 
please her. 

“ There’s a little surprise for you and your sister late 
in the term,” continued Miss Wilson. “ Of course I 
shan’t tell you what it is, but it is something that I 
know will please you.” So Constance had a great 
many pleasant things to wonder about and hope for. 
There were the meetings of the “J. F. F.” Club, 
the surprise that Miss Wilson had told her about, 
and the basket-ball practice. Constance was very 
anxious to be a member of the school team. Espe- 
cially so when she found that there was to be a match 
game between the high school girls of a neighbor- 
ing town, and the girls of Miss Wilson’s school. 

“ I guess Grandfather Newman would think it was 
fine if I was on the basket-ball team, and it won the 
match,” she confided to Miss Wilson. 

“ I am sure he would,” responded the teacher. 


At School 


105 


They had lunch that day under a fine chestnut tree, 
and Lamb told the girls of the baby foxes she had al- 
most tamed; and of their coming back to the vicinity 
of the farm. The girls listened eagerly, and began to 
think that Pine Tree farm must be the nicest place 
possible. 

“ Come, Sister,” whispered Lamb as they finished 
lunch ; “ let’s go down this hill a little way ; I saw 
lots of chestnut burrs under those trees.” 

But when they reached the spot the burrs were found 
empty. Looking up the girls could see that many 
burrs still clung to the branches. 

“ I wish we had a pole,” said Constance, but there 
was no pole obtainable. The other members of the 
party were scattered about further down the slope 
where the trees grew more thickly. 

“ If this tree wasn’t so big we could shake them 
off,” exclaimed Lamb, vainly endeavoring to move the 
Bolid trunk by pushing against it. 

“ I know what we can do,” declared Constance ; 
‘‘ those limbs are not very high, and I can climb up 
and give them a good shaking.” 

“ So you can,” said Lamb, and encouraged by her 
sister’s confidence Constance set down her basket, and 
regarded the tree more carefully. 


io6 Grandpa s Little Girls 

“ I can give a jump and catch hold of that lower 
limb,” she announced, and at the same time sprang 
upward with outstretched hands. 

She caught the limb, but it was not strong enough 
to bear her weight, and an instant later she and the 
branch fell together, and poor Lamb, who stood gazing 
upward with admiring eyes was toppled over with 
Constance on top of her. 

“ 0-oh,” wailed the little girl, and then lay still, so 
very still that Constance, half stunned by the fall, 
scrambled hastily to her feet. 

“ Get up. Lamb,” she commanded, but Lamb still lay 
on her face, her right arm doubled under her, and 
moaned : 

“ I’ve broke my hand off, Sister, I’ve broke my 
hand off.” 

Constance’s cries soon brought Miss Wilson to the 
rescue, and Lamb was lifted up and comforted as 
much as possible. 

I’m afraid the wrist is broken,” declared Miss 
Wilson ; “ we must hurry home as fast as possible.” 


CHAPTEE X 


A “ U. S.” PARTY 

When Grandfather Xewman heard about Lamb’s 
broken wrist he returned to his first opinion in regard 
to sending the girls away to school, and insisted upon 
starting at once to bring her home. To this her 
mother and father consented, as they felt that by this 
time Constance would be used to her new surround- 
ings and would not be homesick without her sister ; 
and they all acknowledged that Pine Tree farm was a 
lonely place without Sister and Lamb. 

“ I expect it will be hard work to persuade ‘ Peter ’ 
to stay at school when she sees Lamb and me starting 
for home,” chuckled Grandfather Xewman as he made 
his preparations for the journey. 

Miss Abitha laughed and shook her head. ‘‘ Don’t 
be surprised if neither of the girls want to come 
home,” she responded. ‘‘ They are just getting inter- 
ested in the other girls, and in their lessons and sports, 
and you mustn’t be disappointed if they want to stay.” 

Grandfather looked at Miss Abitha as if he were 
quite sure that she had taken leave of her senses. 

107 


io8 Grandpa s Git tie Girls 

‘‘ 'Not want to come home ! ” he exclaimed ; when 
they just about broke their poor little hearts at the idea 
of going away ! ” and grandfather laughed heartily. 

“Well, well,-’ he concluded, “ I’ll tell you all about 
it when I bring Lamb home. I suppose poor ‘ Peter ’ 
will have to stick it out until Christmas.” 

Jimmie Woody ear had a box of spruce gum to send 
to Constance, grandmother had baked a wonderful 
cake to send, and her father and mother purchased a 
fine pair of skates. 

“ She’ll need something to take up her mind, poor 
child, and comfort her when she finds that she can’t 
come home with Lamb,” said grandfather as he took 
charge of the packages. 

Lamb’s wrist did not prove very painful, but it 
was hard to carry one arm in a sling all the time and 
give up so many good times with the girls. The 
nights were getting cold, and they were all eagerly 
watching the pond hoping that it would soon freeze 
over so that they could have skating. Lamb, as pres- 
ident of the new club, felt that it was very hard not 
to have the use of her arm. 

“ Your Grandfather Newman will be here to-day, 
Eunice,” said Miss Wilson, the third morning after the 
accident. 


At School 


109 

“ Oh ! Goody, goody ! ” exclaimed both the girls, 
and Miss Wilson smiled at their delight. 

“ Your mother writes that she has decided it will be 
best for you to come home, where she can look after 
the broken wrist,” continued Miss Wilson ; “ so you 
will probably see Pine Tree farm to-morrow.” 

She smiled again as she noticed the expression upon 
the girls’ faces, for she remembered how anxious they 
had been to return home a few weeks earlier, and 
now it was very evident that they wanted to remain 
at school. 

“ Eunice go home ? ” exclaimed Constance. “ Why 
I can take care of her, can’t I, Miss Wilson?” 

“ Go home ? ” echoed Lamb, in much the same tone 
that she had said ‘‘ go to school ” a few months earlier. 

‘‘ Perhaps it will be better for Lamb to be at home 
the remainder of this term,” responded Miss Wilson, 
and the girls listened in silence. It was now early 
November, and two months seemed a long time for 
the sisters to be separated. But when grandfather 
appeared they were so glad to see him and had so 
many questions to ask about everybody at home that 
they did not think much about school plans until 
Mr. Newman gave Constance her presents. 

“ I’m so glad grandmother thought about a cake,” 


no Grandpas Gittle Girls 

she exclaimed. ‘‘You see the ‘J. F. F.’ Club meets 
in my room to-morrow night and it will be just splen- 
did to have this cake for a treat ; and I guess some of 
the girls will like the gum, too,” she added, looking 
approvingly at Jimmie’s gift. 

Grandfather JS^evvman could hardly believe his own 
ears. Was it possible that his own “Peter” could 
think that school was as pleasant a place as 
Pine Tree farm; and not even ask to be taken 
home ? 

“Well, well,” he said slowly; “so you like school 
after all, do you, Peter ? ” 

“ Oh, yes, grandfather, it’s just as Miss Abitha said ; 
there are so many nice girls ; Kose Mason and 
Myrtle Green are fine, and Kose is captain of the 
basket-ball team and she told me this very morning 
that she was going to take me on the team. I want 
you to come over to the gym and see us practice. Oh, 
grandfather, it’s fine to know girls like Rose Mason.” 

“Is, eh?” responded grandfather. “Well, what is 
she like ? ” 

“Oh, she’s tall and straight, and strong. I do 
believe she is as strong as Jimmie Woodyear; of 
course she is almost grown up, she’s nearly sixteen, 
and she knows just what to do about everything. 


At School 


111 


She helps the younger girls a lot with their studies, 
and she’s never hateful and always pleasant.” 

“Well, well,” repeated Grandfather Newman 
thoughtfully ; “ I guess that’s the right kind of a 
girl, don’t you think so, Peter?” 

“ Oh, yes,” answered Constance confidently. “ I 
have told her how lovely Pine Tree farm is, and all 
about you, and she thinks Lamb and I are lucky girls.” 

Grandfather’s face brightened at this, and as he 
saw how contented the children were he began to 
think that school was a pretty good place after all. 

“ I’m coming back just as soon as I can,” Lamb 
whispered when she bade Pose Mason good-bye. The 
little girl began to feel that a broken wrist was not 
such a misfortune after all if it brought Grandfather 
Newman to take one back to Pine Xi’ee farm. Grand- 
father had whispered that there was a pair of skates 
waiting for Lamb at home, “ and I shouldn’t be sur- 
prised if there was another cake by the time we get 
there,” he declared. 

“I guess Jet and Shep and the kittens will be 
glad to see me,” said Lamb as they journeyed toward 
home; “and I’ll have lots of things to tell Sister 
when she gets home. How long does it take for a 
broken wrist to mend, grandfather ? ” 


112 


Grandpa s Little Girls 

“ I guess a little wrist like yours ought to be sound 
and well before Christmas,” replied grandfather; 
“and you and Miss Abitha can have famous times 
skating and sleigh-riding.” 

“ I don’t believe in spoiling children,” said Grand- 
mother Newman to her daughter on the day that 
Lamb arrived home ; “but of course the dear child is 
going to miss her sister dreadfully and we must plan 
to do everything we can to make her happy. I was 
thinking,” and grandmother hesitated a moment and 
then went on slowly, “I was thinking that we ought 
to plan something special for Lamb right away so she 
will see how happy we all are to have her home 
again.” 

“We might speak to Abitha about it,” responded 
young Mrs. Newman. 

So Miss Abitha was consulted and at once suggested 
a plan that greatly pleased Grandmother Newman. 

“We will have a ‘U. S.’ party!” Miss Abitha had 
exclaimed, “and we will have it at my house and 
Lamb need not know a thing about it until the time 
comes. We will have it next Saturday and Jimmie 
Woody ear will help me get ready.” 

Lamb was to continue her lessons with Miss Abitha. 
She had brought home her school books, and Miss 


At School 


11 


Wilson had sent Miss Abitha a letter; for Lamb was 
anxious to keep up with her class. 

“ What will we do Saturdays, Miss Abitha ? ” 
Lamb had questioned, for Saturday had always meant 
something special in the way of a good time to the 
girls before they went away to school, and Miss 
Abitha laughed gayly and responded, “ You just 
wait and see ! ” in so mysterious a manner that Lamb 
knew there was a good time in store, and could hardly 
wait for Saturday to come. 

“ Miss Abitha has asked us all over to have supper 
with her on Saturday night,” said Lamb^s mother ; 
“ and she and Jimmie are so mysterious that I expect 
there will be a surprise for us. She does not want 
us to come over until exactly six.” 

“What do you suppose it is, father ?” questioned 
Lamb as they entered the gate and went up to Miss 
Abitha^s front door. Just then the front door opened. 
“ Oh ! oh ! ” exclaimed Lamb, for there in the door 
stood a young Indian. Two bright red feathers 
stood straight up on his head. His face was a deep 
brown. He wore moccasins, and a red striped blanket 
was draped from his shoulders. 

“ Pale-face, welcome,” said this brave, and Lamb 
ventured to look more closely. “ Jimmie,” she ex- 


114 Grandpas Gittle Girls 

claimed ; and the Indian’s mouth widened into a ready 
smile, but he made no response. 

When they entered the sitting-room Lamb ex- 
claimed again, and so did all the JSTewmans, for they 
hardly recognized the room. As they went in the 
door they seemed to enter a brush wigwam, for the 
walls were hidden by thick branches of spruce ; young 
fir trees stood in the corners of the room, the furni- 
ture had all been removed and the only seats were 
piles of spruce boughs covered with fur robes and 
blankets. The room was dimly lighted by lanterns 
hung here and there, and in the centre of the floor lay 
Shep, evidently well contented with his surround- 
ings. 

They had just seated themselves when a blanket 
curtain at one end of the room was drawn aside and 
an Indian princess entered. She, too, wore feathers 
in her hair ; but hers were like a crown and fell down 
her back like a long plume. Her moccasins were 
covered with bright beads, and she wore a brown 
skirt and red waist with bands of bright colors. The 
older Newmans laughed heartily as she approached, 
and so did Lamb when she realized that it really was 
Miss Abitha. 

“ Isn’t it a lovely surprise, grandmother ! ” she ex- 


At School 


115 

claimed, and just then the Indian princess led the way 
toward the kitchen. 

At the kitchen door she rapped twice. “ Enter,” 
called a loud voice, and the door swung slowly open 
and then not only Lamb exclaimed but so did all the 
others. The floor of the kitchen was covered with 
spruce boughs. 

At the further end of the room was a little plat- 
form and on this platform stood a tall figure. He 
wore a high white hat, blue-and-white striped trousers, 
a blue vest and blue swallow- tailed coat with big brass 
buttons. Directly back of him was draped a large 
American flag. “ Uncle Sam,” whispered Lamb, and 
just then the Indian princess and the young brave ad- 
vanced toward the platform and kneeled before the 
tall figure. 

“ Arise, my children,” said the deep voice, and 
“Uncle Sam ” took off his tall hat ; and then it flashed 
through Lamb’s mind what it meant. “It’s the 
United States welcoming Indians as citizens,” ex- 
claimed the little girl, remembering Miss Abitha’s 
lessons on American history. Then Grandfather 
Hewman clapped his hands loudly, and so did all the 
rest of the party ; and Uncle Sam, who, of course, was 
Mr. Eben Bean, led the way to the round table that was 


ii6 Grandpas L.ittle Girls 

spread with cold turkey, cranberry sauce, pumpkin 
pie, and a wonderful cake with a white sugar lamb on 
top. And not only Lamb exclaimed in wonder and 
delight but all the company could not praise Miss 
Abitha enough. 

“ I call it simply wonderful the way Abitha thinks 
of things,” said Grandmother IS’ewman. 

After supper they returned to the “ wigwam ” and 
Mr. Eben Bean and Grandfather IS’ewman both told 
stories of the early settlement of Maine, and of the 
Indians who had their lodges in the very valley where 
Pine Tree farm now was. When it was time to go 
home the Indian brave walked beside Lamb carrying 
the wonderful cake. 

Constance’s mother wrote her all about the “ United 
States ” party ; and when Constance told Miss Wilson 
about it she said, “I always knew Abitha was a 
wonder. What a teacher she would make for a girls’ 
school ! ” 

“ But we can’t spare her at Pine Tree farm,” 
replied Constance laughingly. 


CHAPTER XI 


JIMMIE KILLS A LYNX 

When Mr. Eben Bean heard of Jimmie Woody ear’s 
plan to earn a farm he at once offered to help him. 

‘‘ I’ll tell you what we’ll do,” he exclaimed ; “ the 
fall work is pretty well over now ; apples all gathered, 
oats threshed, and there’s a sort of lull in the farming 
business, and I’ll speak to Mr. Xewman and see if he 
and Henry and I can’t go up and help you out a little. 
We’ll give you a day’s work in cutting down that 
white birch, and that will give you quite a start.” 

“ I suppose Lamb wouldn’t want to come and have 
a picnic dinner, would she? ” suggested Jimmie. 

Mr. Bean shook his head. “ Hot this time, I guess,” 
he replied. “ I’ve about made up my mind that it is 
a good thing for girls to go to school,” he announced. 
“ They thought it was hard to leave home, but there’s 
a sight of things for young folks to learn and they 
can’t learn all of ’em at home.” 

Mr. Xewman and his son were glad to give Jimmie 
a day’s work on his “farm,” and the first leisure 
Saturday found them all hard at work cutting down 
117 


ii8 Grandpas L,ittle Girls 

the thick growth of young birches. Mr. ISTewman de- 
clared that it would be fine land for potatoes, and 
Henry Newman advised Jimmie to select his acre of 
land facing the highway. 

“ Then when you come to put up a house it will be 
easier for you,” he said. 

“ Kather a lonesome place,” remarked Grandfather 
Newman. 

“I shan’t care for that if I can have some good 
land,” declared Jimmie; “and I know mother won’t 
care either if we can ever own a place of our own.” 

Jimmie used all his leisure time in clearing the 
land. He found a purchaser for the white birch and 
before Christmas he was the proud owner of two acres 
of land ; for with the money he received for the wood 
and his own savings he had purchased the second acre 
from Miss Abitha. 

One day in late December Miss Abitha came over 
to the farm all ready for a snow-shoe trip. She wore 
her short skirt, stout jacket, warm hood and mittens, 
and had a small basket fastened over her shoulder by 
a strap. Jimmie was just sharpening his axe before 
starting for his “ farm.” 

“ I’m going over with you, Jimmie,” she announced ; 
“and I have our lunch right in this basket, so don’t 


At School 


119 


expect us home till you see us,” and waving a good- 
bye to Grandmother Newman, who stood in the door- 
way watching them, they started off across the white 
fields. 

Squirrels chattered at them from the fence posts, 
and now and then some winter-loving bird flew across 
their way, but the day was very still and the air sharp 
and frosty. 

“How will you keep warm after we get to the 
clearing. Miss Abitha?” questioned Jimmie. “I 
shall be warm enough chopping, and I can make you 
up a big bonfire, but I’m afraid you won’t be very 
warm.” 

“Wait and see,” laughed Miss Abitha. “I can 
always be comfortable out-of-doors, and I have a plan.” 

As soon as they reached the clearing they both 
went to work gathering wood for a big fire. 

“ Look ! ” exclaimed Jimmie, pointing to some tracks 
in the snow. “ That looks as if a big cat had been 
walking around here. Mr. Henry Newman told me 
he killed a lynx in these woods once. I wish I could 
kill one.” 

Miss Abitha laughed. “ I’m afraid it’s only a fox’s 
tracks,” she said. 

Jimmie had built the fire directly in front of a big 


120 


Grandpa s Little Girls 

half-decayed log. He had spread his thick coat on 
the log to make a seat for Miss Abitha, and she had 
slipped off her snow-shoes to rest her feet. 

“ A lynx is rather a dangerous animal, IVe heard,” 
continued Miss Abitha. “ I remember when Henry 
Hewman killed the one you speak of. It was in the 
fall and he was out shooting partridge and the crea- 
ture jumped at him from a tree. He fired at it 
but only wounded the creature, and he clubbed it to 
death with his rifle. He had to kill it. We all 
thought he was pretty brave.” 

“I should say so,” responded Jimmie. “I’m going 
right across here to chop ; if you want me, call, and 
I’ll be sure to hear you.” 

Miss Abitha nodded. “ I’m going to do a little ex- 
ploring myself,” she replied ; “ but I shan’t be far 
away. There’s a bunch of spruce trees near, where I 
used to get spruce gum when I was a girl, and that’s 
what I came after to-day. But I’ll keep an eye on 
the fire. I want to get some good hot ashes to roast 
our potatoes,” and with a gay little laugh Miss Abitha 
began to put on her snow-shoes while Jimmie started 
off to his work. 

When Miss Abitha rose from the old log she thought 
that something moved behind her, and looked up ex- 


At School 


121 


pecting to catch a glimpse of a squirrel or partridge, 
but could see nothing, and started off in the direction 
of the spruce trees. She had a stout, one-bladed jack- 
knife with her and was soon digging the fragrant gum 
from the trees. It did not take her long to secure all 
she wanted, and then she began to think about roast- 
ing the potatoes for lunch and turned back toward 
the clearing. 

She came out near the fire and looking toward the 
edge of the wood where Jimmie was at work, she 
stopped in terror. 

A long black creature was creeping noiselessly 
across the white snow toward the boy. 

“A lynx,” screamed Miss Abitha, and without a 
thought for her own safety she rushed toward the 
animal calling, “ Jimmie ! Jimmie ! ” 

At the first sound of her voice the boy had turned, 
and instantly understood his own peril. The lynx 
was not fifty feet away from him. The animal 
turned also, and at the sight of Miss Abitha rushing 
toward him he hesitated. Her loud calls and wav- 
ing arms almost terrified the creature, and had Miss 
Abitha kept on he would doubtless have fled before 
her. But as the lynx turned and faced her Miss 
A bitha came to a full stop. 


122 Grandpa s Little Girls 

The creature evidently felt that this new and noisy 
unknown being was more dangerous than the boy 
upon whom it had been prepared to spring ; so it 
crouched down and eyed Miss Abitha angrily, making 
up its mind to attack her if she made a motion. 

Jimmie realized instantly that his friend was in 
greater danger than himself. His axe was sharp, his 
muscles strong and well developed, and he remem- 
bered that Henry Newman had clubbed one of these 
creatures to death with a gun. With a yell that 
echoed through the frosty air Jimmie rushed toward 
his enemy and the lynx sprang about to face this new 
peril. 

Boy and lynx rushed toward each other. Jimmie 
raised his axe at the right moment and a long swing- 
ing stroke caught the animal on the side of its head 
with such force that the creature was hurled sideways 
and fell senseless. Jimmie ^vas quick to make the 
most of his good luck and hurried after the animal 
and with a few swift strokes made sure that it was 
dead. 

Miss Abitha had not moved, but when Jimmie 
turned toward her he was startled at her white face. 

“ It can’t hurt us now,” he called out triumphantly. 
“ I’ve killed it.” 


At School 


123 


“ You saved my life, Jimmie,” said Miss Abitha. 

“ I guess it’s the other way and you saved mine,” 
responded the boy. “ That lynx would have sprung 
on my back if you hadn’t have called out just as you 
did and rushed at him. Say, Miss Abitha,” continued 
the boy admiringly, “ you were awful brave to run at 
him that way.” 

“ Keckless,” said Miss Abitha ; “ but let me look at 
the creature if you are sure it’s dead.” 

Jimmie straightened the lynx out at full length and 
Miss Abitha looked at it admiringly. Its fur was 
long and glossy and Jimmie’s axe had not injured it. 

“ I’ll get a good price for the skin,” said Jimmie. 

“We must take it home with us,” declared Miss 
Abitha. “ You cut down a sapling and we can fasten 
its feet to the sapling and carry it home. You must 
have string in your pockets.” 

“ Yes, I have,” answered the boy, and in a short 
time he had cut down a stout sapling and the lynx 
was fastened securely to it. 

“ I can take one end and you the other,” said Miss 
Abitha. “ I don’t believe it weighs more than thirty 
pounds.” 

Jimmie was inclined to think that fifty would be 
nearer the correct weight. 


124 Grandpa s Git tie Girls 

“ I believe the creature was in that hollow log,’^ 
said Miss Abitha, after they had put out the fire and 
were read 3^ to start for home. “ I heard a rustling 
noise there when I started after the gum.” 

They made rather slow progress toward home and 
their arms ached long before they came in sight of 
Pine Tree farm. When they were nearly home Miss 
Abitha began to laugh. “ Jimmie,” she said, “ our 
lunch basket is up on that old log and we never 
thought about eating.” 

“ I guess not after such a catch as this,” answered 
the boy looking at the lynx admiringly. 

Mr. Eben Bean and Grandfather Newman hurried 
to meet them and bring home the unexpected burden, 
and there were many exclamations over Jimmie’s 
courage and skill. Mr. Henry Newman offered to dis- 
pose of the skin for Jimmie. “It will bring you 
ten dollars,” he declared, “ so you have done quite a 
good morning’s work.” 


CHAPTER XII 


THE YOUNGEST GIRL ON THE TEAM 

The “ J. F. F.” Club voted that Constance’s cake 
from home was the best treat of the term, and they all 
looked with approval upon the spruce gum. Practice 
at basket-ball proved more and more interesting, and 
Constance found little time to be homesick. 

“ I think Rose means to put you into the game as 
centre,” confided Myrtle Green one day as they walked 
down to the lake to look at the smooth skim over the 
water that was daily growing more solid. 

Constance shook her head doubtfully. “ That is too 
good to even think about. Myrtle,” she answered. “ If 
I get into the match game as a guard I shall think it’s 
a wonder.” 

“Well, I have been watching your practice,” re- 
sponded Myrtle ; “ and you don’t hang on to the ball 
like most beginners. Rose has been watching you, 
too.” 

Constance flushed happily at this praise. “ I don’t 
think much of our forwards,” she ventured. “ Of 
course I don’t know everything about basket-ball, but 

125 


126 Grandpa s Gittle Girls 

it seemed to me yesterday when we bad team practice 
that the forwards did not see half their chances.” 

“ Good for you,” exclaimed Myrtle. “ I might as 
well tell you what Kose Mason says about your play- 
ing. She says that you were just made for basket- 
ball. She likes you a lot, too, in other ways,” and 
Myrtle looked at Constance to see how she received 
such high commendation. 

“I’m going to do the best I can,” Constance re- 
sponded. “ If we play with the high school girls on 
Thanksgiving day we shall only have a week’s more 
practice.” 

“ The game is to be in our gym after all,” an- 
nounced Myrtle. “ I expect there will be a crowd up 
from the village to see it. Most of those girls are 
older than the girls here, and they think it’s quite a 
condescension to play with Miss Wilson’s ‘ Kids,’ as 
they call us ; but I guess we’ll show them.” 

“ I guess we will,” responded Constance valiantly. 

Kose Mason had urged upon her players the neces- 
sity of doing their best in the coming match. All 
those chosen for the match game had had more experi- 
ence than Constance, and to her Kose devoted much 
time. 

“You are quick with your hands and you think 


At School 


127 


quickly,” she told her new recruit ; “ but there is a lot 
to basket-ball. If you run against another girl in the 
game just remember that it’s no place to waste valu- 
able time in apologies ; and if your wrist gets a twist 
it isn’t the place to cry about it. Basket-ball gives one 
a lot of judgment and self-control. You are pretty 
young to be put in a match game, the youngest girl on 
the team, but you are tall and strong, and if you don’t 
get rattled you can help us win.” 

Constance listened attentively, and promised to do 
her best. 

“There’s something else I want to talk to you 
about,” continued Captain Kose. “ You are listed for 
centre. Now I don’t know the girl who is to play 
centre for the high school, but I’ll tell you one thing, 
whoever she is, she won’t take her eyes from the 
referee until the ball is in play. Just remember that,” 
and Constance promised. A new ambition was begin- 
ning to take form in Constance’s thoughts. This was 
Kose Mason’s last year at Miss Wilson’s school. Next 
year there would have to be a new captain for the 
basket-ball team, and Constance determined that if 
good playing could win that honor it should be hers. 

The hour appointed for the game was eleven o’clock 
on Thanksgiving morning. By half-past ten the 


128 


Grandpa s Gittle Girls 

gymnasium galleries were filled with interested specta- 
tors. The umpires had carefully examined the baskets 
to see that they were securely fastened against the 
wall. The scorer, timekeeper, and linesmen had taken 
their places ; and the referee, ball in hand, was waiting 
for the players to come on to the floor. 

At two minutes before eleven Eose Mason, followed 
by Constance, and the forwards and guards came into 
place and were enthusiastically cheered by their 
schoolmates. Immediately their opponents appeared, 
the captains stepped forward, the ball was handed to 
Eose, and the captains tossed for choice of goals. 
Eose won. Then the referee put the ball into play and 
the great game had begun. 

Constance had but a moment to look at the centre 
opposed to her ; but that was time enough to realize 
that her opponent was a tall girl with broad shoulders 
and long arms ; then Constance fixed her eyes on the 
referee, ready to spring for the ball the moment it was 
in the air. She noticed the position of her forwards 
and hoped that they would prove more alert than they 
had in practice. 

Up went the ball and two slender figures sprang 
for it. It was Constance who felt the ball in her 
hands. Instantly she tossed it to the nearest forward, 



UP WENT THE BALL 






At School 


129 


who proved worthy her confidence and moved it on 
with such swiftness that it was in their opponents’ 
basket before the high school girls had realized their 
position. 

The ball was put into play again, and again Con- 
stance was the fortunate one, but this time the for- 
wards hesitated, and the guards had their share of 
work in protecting their basket. 

After fifteen minutes’ brisk play came the intermis- 
sion. Eose Mason’s players had won four points. 
Kose found time to whisper to Constance, “you are 
all right,” and Constance glowed and brightened un- 
der her praise. 

Again came the quick jump for the ball, and Con- 
stance missed. Eot only missed but as her feet 
touched the floor she felt a sharp wrench, a stinging 
pain, and for one instant felt that she must cry out 
with pain and hobble off the field. But she faced her 
opponent to the centre and cleverly prevented the 
ball from reaching its destination. She heard the de- 
lighted applause of her schoolmates, but the twinge in 
her ankle grew sharper ; how could she bear another 
leap ? “ Basket-ball is no place to cry,” she remem- 
bered, and played bravely on. There was no other 
centre upon whom Eose Mason could rely. “ I must 


130 Grandpa s Little Girls 

hold out,” resolved the girl, and she kept her place 
bravely and played well. 

“ Everything is going Kose Mason’s way,” declared 
one of the visitors. 

“Well, it’s all on account of the girl playing centre,” 
was the response ; and Myrtle Green overheard and 
treasured the words. “Constance will be captain 
herself some day,” she thought proudly. 

Captain Kose was delighted at the success of her 
team. The honors were all theirs; and the high 
school girls were the first to congratulate and compli- 
ment them. 

“ Your centre is a dandy,” declared the captain to 
Rose, “ but I think she’s twisted her ankle or some- 
thing ” but before she could finish Kose had 

rushed after Constance, to find her sitting huddled up 
on her locker holding on to her foot and looking very 
white. 

Miss Wilson was summoned to the rescue, and de- 
clared it was only a slight sprain. Hot water was 
quickly obtained, and in an hour Constance declared 
the pain nearly gone ; nevertheless she could not put 
her foot to the floor without severe twinges. 

“ You are a perfect heroine,” declared Myrtle 
Green, as the girls gathered about. “ To think of 


At School 


>31 

your having the grit to keep on playing for ten 
minutes with a sprained ankle ! ” exclaimed another. 

“ There’s no time for tears in basket-ball,” declared 
Constance, and Rose regarded her approvingly. 

The sprain proved a very slight one, and in a few 
days Constance hardly felt it at all. Miss Wilson had 
been prevailed upon not to write the news to Pine 
Tree farm. “You know they might come after me, 
and I would have to go home and miss the rest of the 
term,” she pleaded, and Miss Wilson promised not to 
tell of the accident. 

But the local paper was represented at the game, 
and its next issue praised Constance’s wonderful self- 
control, as well as her excellent playing, and this 
paper found its way to Pine Tree farm, where it 
created great concern. A telegram to Miss Wilson, 
however, brought such reassurance that even Grand- 
father Newman was satisfied, and re-read the account 
of the game with great satisfaction. 

“ Self-control, eh ! Judgment, um ! ” he repeated to 
himself with a pleased chuckle. “ I guess our ‘ Peter ’ 
is learning other things than what she reads in books. 
Eunice,” and he turned a smiling face toward his 
wife, “I think that idea of ours to send Constance 
to Miss Wilson’s school was a mighty good idea. I 


132 Grandpa s Gittle Girls 

believe it is going to make a fine woman of her,” he 
continued. 

Grandmother nodded. “ Yes, Jabez,” she re- 
sponded. “ I never believed in spoiling children. 
We trained Constance very carefully, you know, and 
I’m glad to see that she is appreciated, even if it’s 
in a game.” 

Grandfather chuckled happily. “I wish I could 
have seen that game,” he said. “I guess I’ll keep 
this piece in the paper,” and the article referring to 
Constance was cut out and put carefully away in the 
tall secretary. 


CHAPTER XIII 


THE END OF THE TEEM 

As Constance limped to school or about the grounds 
she found that she was the object of admiring atten- 
tion. The younger girls pointed her out to their 
friends as “ the girl who won the basket-ball game ” ; 
and would then tell about the twisted ankle and Con- 
stance’s wonderful grit. To walk with Constance be- 
came as great a favor as to be noticed by Rose Mason, 
and Rose realized it without the slightest ill-feeling. 
She and Constance were becoming the best of friends, 
and the influence of the older girl was having a most 
beneficial result on Sister’s way of looking at things. 

“ Less than a month and we’ll be starting for home 
for Christmas,” declared Constance one evening as 
she and Rose sat together in the latter’s room. 

You will,” responded Rose ; “ but I stay at school 
right along. You know I haven’t any mother or 
father, or anybody except the old lady who is my 
guardian, and she never wants me; so I stay with 
Miss Wilson, and I always have a lovely time.” 

133 


134 Grandpa s Gittle Girls 

“Do you stay here summers?” questioned Con- 
stance. 

“ Ob, yes. This is more like home than any place 
to me,” replied Kose soberly. 

“But where will you go when school is over?” 
went on Constance. 

Bose smiled a little at her friend’s anxious face. 
“I am going to stay with Miss Wilson all next sum- 
mer,” she replied; “and in the fall I am going to 
Normal School. You see my father did not leave 
very much money, and by the time m}^ education is 
finished it will be about all gone, so I am to take the 
Normal training and teach.” 

While Kose was talking Constance resolved to her- 
self that her friend should spend the next summer at 
Pine Tree farm. She knew they would all love to 
have her. And what good times Kose could have 
with the pony, and going on all the picnics and every- 
thing! She was silent so long that Kose began to 
laugh. 

“ I suppose you are being sorry for me,” she said ; 
“and that’s the last thing to be. You see it isn’t as 
if I knew anything about a home, for both ray father 
and mother died when I was a tiny girl, and I was 
passed about from one school to another until I came 


At School 


135 


here. And I’ve been just as happy as any girl. As 
soon as I get to be a teacher I shall plan and save 
my money and start a school of my own just like 
this one.” 

“ Perhaps you will come back and teach here,” sug- 
gested Sister. 

“ Miss Wilson says I can,” responded Kose. 

After this talk Constance grew more attached to 
Kose. She was sure that Rose was the most wonder- 
ful girl in the world, and resolved to try and be more 
like her. She noticed how patient and kind she was 
with the younger pupils; always ready to walk with 
the little girls, and often appealed to to mend a torn 
skirt or bind up a cut finger. 

“I guess my mother and father would be pleased to 
have me come home just like Rose,” she thought. 

The “ J. F. F.” Club were making great plans for 
an entertainment to be given for the teachers and 
pupils of the school. A play had been decided upon. 
It was an original play by Myrtle Green, and the 
girls were all sure that it was a wonderful production. 

The opening scene was to represent a city drawing- 
room, where a lady was to be seen reading a letter. She 
exclaims in apparent disgust that “ Cousin Jane is most 
unreasonable to expect me to go into the country in 


136 Grandpa s Gittle Girls 


the winter.” Just then her two daughters enter, one 
of them a fashionable young lady who declares that 
“if Cousin Jane is ill let her get some one to take care 
of her.” The other daughter proves the heroine of 
the play. She insists upon going into the country and 
caring for Cousin Jane. 

The second act showed the farmhouse, the sick cousin, 
a farm boy (Myrtle herself made an excellent farm 
boy) and the cousin from the city, who takes such 
good care of the invalid that she is speedily restored 
to health, and gives a party where the guests all dance 
the Virginia Keel. 

The last act shows that country cousins are well 
worth restoring to life and health, for Cousin Jane 
insists upon taking her unselfish young cousin on a trip 
abroad ; and the selfish mother and sister are left at 
home lamenting their own short-sightedness. 

“Myrtle Green is a perfect genius,” declared a 
member of the club after reading the play, and the 
other members agreed with her. 

“ I don’t suppose many schools are lucky enough to 
have so many remarkable girls as we have here,” de- 
clared another. “ Of course Rose Mason is perfectly 
fine every way, and look at Constance K’ewman, there 
are not many girls with her courage, and now Myrtle 


At School 


•37 


Green ! I think it’s great luck to go to school with 
such girls,” and the others listened approvingly and 
agreed. 

The play was to be given on the night that the 
school term closed. The next day all the pupils but 
Kose Mason would start for their holiday visits. 

As the term drew near its close Constance began to 
wonder what the “ surprise ” would be, of which Miss 
Wilson had spoken to her before Lamb went home. 
She knew that her father was to come after her, and 
she could not imagine vvhat form the surprise would 
take ; but there were so many rehearsals for Myrtle’s 
play beside skating parties on the lake, that gradually 
she gave up trying to solve the question. Although 
Miss Wilson did not think it best for Constance to 
join in the games on the ice, thinking her ankle might 
be weakened, still Constance found great pleasure in 
watching the others, in tending the bonfires on the 
point, and adjusting the straps of those who could 
skate ; and the days went very quickly and pleasantly. 

The last day of the term arrived and with it came 
Mr. Henry Hewman ; and Constance’s first word, after 
her warm welcome, was to tell him about Rose Mason. 
“ And, father,” she exclaimed, “ I thought at first that 
I wanted to ask her to come to Pine Tree farm next 


138 Grandpa s L,ittle Girls 


summer ; and I do now, but I want her to go home 
with us to-morrow. Will you ask her, father? Just 
think, she hasn’t anybody ! ” 

But it did not need any persuasion to influence Mr. 
Newman. “ Of course we will ask her, that is if your 
mother and grandmother say so.” 

“ But, father, there isn’t time to ask them ; we go 
to-morrow.” 

“ So we do ! ” replied Mr. Newman, and Constance 
wondered a little at her father’s forgetting such a 
thing. “Well, you introduce me to this wonderful 
Kose and I will tell her that we want her to be all 
ready to go home with us.” 

At first Kose declared that she could not go ; but 
when Miss Wilson gave her consent, and Constance 
was ready to cry at her refusal, she said that she 
would go, and her eyes brightened and her cheeks 
flushed happily at the unexpected pleasure in store for 
her. 

Constance did not see her father after supper until, 
as the fashionable and selfish lady, she looked down 
at the audience from the platform in the recitation 
room where the play was to be given. And then she 
almost forgot the opening lines, for there, in the very 
front row of seats, were Grandfather and Grandmother 


At School 


*39 


Kewman, and her dear mother and father, and Lamb, 
actually Lamb ! It was hard work not to jump off the 
stage and rush to greet them, but there was a warning 
word from Rose, and with a radiant smile, which was 
reflected from five happy faces in the front row, the 
fashionable lady began her declaration that she would 
not go into the country. 

Grandfather Kewman could hardly wait for the 
play to end ; but Lamb was the first one to reach 
Constance, as she was allowed not only to go behind 
the curtain, but was invited to “ Cousin Jane’s ” party, 
and went through the Virginia Reel with her de- 
lighted schoolmates. 

The elder Newmans had been much interested in 
Rose’s story, and Grandmother Newman said that she 
was sure Miss Abitha would think of all sorts of de- 
lightful plans to make Rose’s visit enjoyable. 

“ She’s a dear girl, I can see that,” she told grand- 
father. 

“ A good deal like our ‘ Peter,’ ” responded Grand- 
father Newman thoughtfully. “ I notice they both 
have the same ways. I guess Miss Wilson’s idea of 
giving our girl a surprise by asking us all here worked 
pretty well.” 

But Lamb was doubtless the happiest one of the 


140 Grandpa s Git tie Girls 

party, for the girls were all so glad to see her and, now 
that her wrist was well, she could join in all the plans 
for the next term, for she would return with Constance. 

A telegram had been sent to Miss Abitha, and when 
the happy party reached Pine Tree farm on Christmas 
eve everything was ready for the expected guest. 

There were lights in all the windows ; Shep was 
jumping about on the porch and the two cats were 
close inside the hall door to claim their share of 
attention. 

“ This is the best supper that ever was,” declared 
Constance as they all gathered around the table ; and 
when each girl found a round cake with her own name 
on top in pink sugar letters Lamb said that Miss 
Abitha was the best cook that ever was. 

“ Aren’t you going to eat your cake, my dear ? ” 
asked Mrs. JS'ewman, noticing that Kose was looking 
at her own name admiringly, while Sister and Lamb 
devoured theirs. 

“ I thought I’d like to keep it, if you don’t mind,” 
responded the girl. “ You see it is the first cake that 
was ever made especially for me, and, someway, I 
don’t like to eat it.” 

Grandmother and young Mrs. Newman exchanged 
an understanding look, and grandmother said, “Well, 


At School 


141 


it shan’t be the last one ; for every time you come to 
Pine Tree farm, and I hope you will come often, I 
shall make you a cake myself.” 

“ Constance,” said Rose as they went up-stairs that 
night, “ it was a lucky day for me when you came to 
Miss Wilson’s school.” 

“ And for me, too,” responded Constance, looking 
at Rose affectionately. 

“ Lamb,” she said to her sister later on when they 
were in their own room, “ I can’t believe that we were 
ever so foolish as to run off to that horrid old school- 
house. Just think, if our mother hadn’t decided to 
send us to school this year we never would have 
known Rose Mason.” 

“ I guess mothers always know best,” replied Lamb ; 
“anyway I shan’t ever run away again. Does Rose 
Mason know about that. Sister ? ” 

“iN’o,” said Sister slowly ; “ and I’m almost ashamed 
to tell her, but perhaps I ought to.” 

“ Yes,” said Lamb ; “ I guess if she is coming here 
often she ought to know all about us.” 

“ Oh, dear,” sighed Constance, “ I guess it will be a 
lesson to us. Lamb. I can’t bear to tell Rose; she 
always does things just right, and perhaps she won’t 
like me when she hears about it.” 


142 Grandpa s Little Girls 

“Well,” insisted Lamb, “you ought to tell her just 
the same,” and Constance promised that she would. 

Grandfather took them all for a sleigh-ride the next 
morning, and stopped at Jimmie’s “farm” to point 
out where the lynx had been concealed, and where 
Jimmie had slain it. 

“ That took courage,” declared grandfather ; “ more 
courage than it took for Lamb and Peter to stay all 
night in the old schoolhouse,” and then grandfather 
told Rose that the girls had not wanted to go to 
school, and all about their running away. 

Both Sister and Lamb felt very uncomfortable as 
they listened. But Rose seemed to understand all 
about it. 

“ I guess I should have felt just that way if I had a 
home like Pine Tree farm, and so many people to care 
about me,” she said. 

“ I guess you would,” said grandfather, smiling at 
her approvingly. “ I said that you and Peter were a 
good deal alike.” 

“ Isn’t it lovely that grandfather told her and that 
she don’t care?” Lamb whispered to her sister, and 
Constance nodded happily. 


CHAPTER XIY 


A SKATIJSTG CARNIVAL 

“ Look at the lake ! ” exclaimed Lamb, as the girls 
drove up through the grounds on their return from 
their visit to Pine Tree farm. 

“We will have fine skating now, and I shall have a 
chance to use the skates your grandmother gave me,” 
responded Rose. 

“ Isn’t it lovely that you are to go back to Pine 
Tree farm with us next summer,” said Lamb, giving 
the elder girl’s arm an affectionate squeeze. “ I guess 
they all liked you just as well as they do us.” 

Rose laughed at her little friend’s enthusiasm. “ I 
am glad if they’ll like me quarter as well,” she re- 
plied ; “ but you will have to start in on your skating 
club now, Eunice.” 

But Lamb shook her head. 

“ I guess I’ve been away too long,” she declared. 
“ I don’t believe the girls would want me to be presi- 
dent now ; and that’s all I wanted to have a club for 
so as to be president of something.” 

This statement made both Constance and Rose 

143 


144 Grandpa s Gittle Girls 

laugh heartily, and when Miss Wilson came out on 
the porch to welcome them she was sure that she had 
never seen three happier girls than those just returned 
from Pine Tree farm. 

Myrtle Green came rushing up to their room to 
hear all about their good times, and to tell of her own 
happy holidays. 

“ Oh, girls ! ” she exclaimed. “ What do you sup- 
pose my father is going to do ? He is going to have 
‘Cousin Jane,’ my play, you know, printed. Honest 
he is. It makes a little sliver of a book ; but father 
is so proud of it that he wants to give copies of it to 
everybody. And he’s going to send a copy to every 
girl in the school.” 

“ That will be fine,” responded Constance 
heartily. 

“ And he is going to have Miss Wilson’s picture in 
it and mine,” concluded Myrtle a little anxiously. 
“ You don’t suppose the girls will think that is silly, 
do you ? ” 

“Ho, indeed!” declared Constance. “I think it 
was lovely in him to think of it.” 

“ Have you heard of Miss Wilson’s surprise for 
us ? *’ Myrtle continued, having satisfied herself as to 
her friend’s opinion. 


At School 


145 


“ Oh, what is it ? ’’ asked Lamb eagerly. 

“ It’s something for to-morrow night,” exclaimed 
Myrtle ; ‘‘ and we all think it’s something to do with a 
skating party. If it is we will all know by to-morrow 
morning. You know she gives us all some kind of a 
good time as soon as we get back from the Christmas 
vacation.” 

Constance gave a little sigh. “ I was thinking,” 
she explained, in answer to Myrtle’s look of surprise, 
“ how lucky it was that Lamb and I came to this 
school. Just think of all the good times we would 
have missed if we had stayed at home.” 

“ Why, of course it was lucky ! ” exclaimed Myrtle. 
“There isn’t a nicer school anywhere.” 

“ I don’t believe there is one as good,” declared 
Constance loyally. 

When the girls assembled in the dining-room for 
supper that night each one found a large square 
envelope beside her plate. Across the top of each 
envelope were painted tiny figures in bright skating 
costumes. 

“ It’s our invitations,” announced Myrtle ; and there 
was an immediate rustle of paper, as the girls all 
opened their envelopes and each took out her card of 
invitation. 


146 Grandpa s Git tie Girls 


Then there were many exclamations of admiration 
and pleasure. The cards read : 

“ You are invited to take part in a skating carnival 
to be held on Forest Lake to-morrow evening. Guests 
will please not go to the pond during the afternoon ; 
and will gather in the school library at exactly a 
quarter before seven, where they will be met and es- 
corted to the lake.’* 

There was great excitement that evening wondering 
what the surprise would be, and why Miss Wilson 
should ask them not to go near the lake during the 
day. 

“ I suppose we could go down almost to the lake and 
see if anything was being done there,” ventured one 
of the younger girls to Lamb. 

“ Of course we couldn’t ! ” answered Lamb. 

“ Well, Miss Wilson didn’t tell us not to,” persisted 
the girl. 

“ She asked us not to, didn’t she ? ” said Lamb ; 
“ and on an invitation, too ; and I guess there isn’t a 
girl that goes to school here who would be mean enough 
to try to find out after that,” and Lamb looked at her 
companion so indignantly that the little girl promptly 
decided that she would not talk to “ that Eunice New- 
man ” any more. 


At School 


147 


Eose Mason, Myrtle Green and Constance Newman 
were excused from afternoon recitations on the day of 
the carnival, and the other pupils knew that these girls 
had been selected to assist the teachers. 

“ There’s going to be things to eat,” announced 
Lamb, as she saw Sister a moment just before supper. 

“ Yes,” said Constance ; “ I can tell you as much as 
that, there’s going to be a treat.” 

At exactly a quarter before seven the guests were 
all waiting in the school library. They had been as- 
sembled but a moment when there sounded a long 
musical note from a cornet and then came the rat tat- 
tat of a drum, followed by the strains of Washington’s 
March, and the door opened and four figures walked 
in. The girls quickly recognized Miss Wilson, Eose 
Mason, Myrtle Green, and Constance Newman, al- 
though they were all dressed in tall fur caps, short red 
blanket skirts, with long belted blouses of red, and 
high fur-topped boots. Each one carried a lantern. 
They directed the girls to form into four divisions, 
and with a guide at the head of each division, filed out 
of the building. When they reached the steps there 
stood the village band, and at a signal from Miss 
Wilson they struck up a lively quickstep and marched 
briskly down the road to the pond. 


148 Grandpa s Gittle Girls 


“ Isn’t it lovely ? ” whispered Lamb to the girl 
nearest her. And indeed it was a scene that 
the girls would long remember. The clear, crisp 
air, the shining stars and the gay music. As they 
neared the lake they all cried out in delight. Two 
big bonfires were blazing near the shore and lighting 
up all that side of the pond, and right between the 
two stood what looked like a huge bouquet of apple- 
blossoms, but, as the girls drew nearer they could see 
that it was a sort of arbor, or summer-house, and com- 
pletely covered with branches which surely seemed 
loaded with blossoms. 

“ They are paper flowers,” declared one of the girls ; 
and so they were, but made with so much skill that it 
seemed as if spring had showered down her choicest 
blooms for the January ice carnival. 

The other teachers were awaiting them, and assisted 
Miss Wilson in forming the girls into quadrilles on the 
ice, while the band standing near one of the bonfires 
furnished the music. 

Just as some of the skaters were beginning to get 
a little tired they were startled and interested to see 
two big fires suddenly blaze up on the opposite side of 
the pond, and to see ten or a dozen girls come dashing 
out on to the lake from that side. When these new- 


At School 


149 

comers bad reached the centre of the lake they formed 
in line and began singing : 

“ There is a teacher in our town, in our town, 

And great, and great is her renown, her renown. 

And listen while we tell her name, known to fame ! 

Hear her name, known to fame ! 

Miss Wilson ! ’’ 

This was followed by a rousing cheer. 

“ It’s the high school girls from the village,” ex- 
claimed Eose Mason. “Hurry up, girls, we must 
cheer them back ! ” and, darting out on the ice closely 
followed by Constance and Myrtle and the older 
girls, Eose called out, “ Three cheers and a welcome 
for the high school girls,” which was given with a 
will. 

Then the guests, whom Miss Wilson had invited 
several days earlier, joined in with Miss Wilson’s girls 
in showing off their skill on skates. A long call from 
the cornet was the signal, however, for them to form in 
line and march toward the house. The high school 
girls were given the lead, and were escorted by the 
fur clad guides. 

When they had taken off their warm coats and 
mittens they were called into the dining-room. The 
small tables had been taken out and two long tables, 


150 Grandpa s L.ittle Girls 

ornamented with flowers, had been spread. As soon 
as the girls were seated they were served to hot 
oyster stew. 

The big hall clock struck ten when the high school 
girls were warmly wrapped up for their ride to the 
village. As the big sleigh drove down the avenue 
they sent back a ringing cheer for “ Miss Wilson’s 
School,” which was cordially responded to by three 
cheers for “ the high school girls.” And then they 
hurried off to their rooms. 

“ It was as good as one of Miss Abitha’s surprises,” 
declared Lamb, as the two sisters prepared for bed. 

‘‘ Yes, it was,” assented Constance, and they both 
felt that this was the highest possible praise. 


CHAPTER XY 

LOST ON THE RIVER 

As the winter advanced Mr. Xewman decided that 
Jimmie Woody ear had better remain at the farm 
nights, instead of going home as had been his custom. 
There was not much for the boy to do except keep a 
good supply of fire-wood ready, and take care of 
Jet, so he found frequent opportunities of snow- 
shoeing across the fields to see his mother. 

“ I think, Jimmie, that you and I ought to do some 
studying this winter,” said Miss Abitha one morning 
when the boy came into her house on an errand ; 
“ look at all the time we have ! ” 

“ I guess you don’t waste much time. Miss Abitha,” 
responded the boy. 

“ I don’t know about that,” declared Miss Abitha 
with a laugh. “ When I get a letter from Constance 
and see all the diiferent things she is learning, and 
hear all about the gymnasium practice, and club 
meetings, I begin to think that everybody who doesn’t 
go to school is wasting his time.” 

“ I guess you don’t have to go to school to learn 
how to farm,” said Jimmie. 

151 


152 Grandpa's L,ittle Girls 

Miss Abitha looked at him and shook her head. 
“Why, Jimmie!” she exclaimed, “a farmer has to 
know everything, root and branch. And you and I 
must begin right away.” So it was decided that 
Jimmie was to recite to Miss Abitha every day. 

The evenings no longer seemed dull and tiresome to 
the boy, for Miss Abitha soon interested him in math- 
ematics and gave him fascinating problems to work 
out. She told him about the Agricultural College, 
and Jimmie resolved to himself that some day he 
would go and have at least one term’s instruction. 

With the price of the lynx’s skin, and what little he 
could save from his small earnings Jimmie hoped to 
purchase two more acres of land the coming year. 
Then, too, he was counting on a fine crop of potatoes 
from the land he had already cleared. He felt that in 
a few years he would own enough land to become a 
farmer on a small scale, and Mr. Hewman encouraged 
this ambition. 

Miss Abitha missed Sister and Lamb, and was very 
glad to help Jimmie all she could with his lessons. 
They would also go off on occasional snow-shoe trips ; 
sometimes to the village, and now and then across the 
fields and down the river a short distance. 

It was early in February when Miss Abitha planned 


At School 


153 


for an excursion after frost-fish. She and Jimmie 
were to start in the morning so as to reach the river 
in good season, cut holes through the ice and set their 
hooks, then snow-shoe down the river a short distance 
to a small cabin where they would build a fire, eat 
their luncheon, and be near enough to attend to their 
fishing. 

Jimmie had a good ice chisel, and had brought with 
him all the necessary materials for frost-fishing. 
These consisted of two dozen strong fish-hooks, and 
lines ; a piece of pork, which he intended to cut into 
small bits for bait, and a bunch of strong rods, each 
one about a yard long. To one end of each of these 
rods was fastened a small square of red flannel. 

As soon as they reached the fishing grounds Jimmie 
began to cut holes in the ice. These holes were about 
a foot square and about six feet apart. While he was 
doing this Miss Abitha went to the cabin and de- 
posited the basket of lunch and started up a fire. 
When she came back she brought an armful of alder 
branches, each one having a notch where a limb had 
been cut off, making each branch look something like a 
letter Y. 

Then Jimmie set these alder branches firmly in the 
ice, one at each opening. The baited hooks were then 


154 Grandpa s L,ittle Girls 

tied to the rods, and, by means of a loosely-tied slip- 
noose, were secured to the alder stick ; resting across 
the notch in such a way that the bait was in the water 
and the red flag at the other end. 

“ Now,” said Jimmie, “ when a fish bites up goes 
the red flag, see ? ” 

“ Yes, indeed ! ” replied Miss Abitha admiringly. 
“ And all that we have to do is run up and pull out 
Mr. Frost-fish, and bait our hooks again.” 

“ That’s all,” answered Jimmie. 

“ I almost wish that my farm was along a river,” 
he continued. “ Then I could go fishing stormy days. 
And I could build a boat, too.” 

“ You can build the boat just the same,” declared 
Miss Abitha ; “ and it will be just as easy to go fish- 
ing as if your farm was right here, and a lot more 
fun.” 

“ Look ! look ! ” exclaimed Jimmie, for just then 
three of the red flags bobbed up, and the fishermen 
hastened to take the fish off the hooks and set new 
bait. By the time these were attended to several 
other flags were flying and time passed so quickly that 
even Jimmie forgot about luncheon. 

“ It’s two o’clock, Jimmie Woodyear,” exclaimed 
Miss Abitha. “ I will take some of these fish down to 


At School 


>55 

the cabin and fry them; and when everything is 
ready I’ll call.” 

“All right,” responded Jimmie, and Miss Abitha 
hurried back to the cabin to find that the fire was all 
out, and that a family of inquisitive squirrels were 
making strenuous efforts to get into the lunch 
basket. 

There was plenty of dry wood piled up in a corner 
of the cabin, and in a short time the fish were ready, 
the potatoes baked to a turn, and the fragrance of hot 
coffee filled the cabin. 

Then Miss Abitha went to the door and called 
Jimmie. She had been so busy in preparing the 
luncheon that she had not thought about the weather, 
and as she opened the cabin door and looked out she 
exclaimed in surprise. It was only the middle of the 
afternoon, but the sun had vanished, and dull gray 
clouds hung low above the horizon. The trees near 
the cabin lashed themselves against each other as the 
wind swept up from the river, and spits of snow 
dashed in Miss Abitha’s face. 

Jimmie answered her call promptly. 

“ We must start for home the minute we finish our 
lunch,” said Miss Abitha, “ for it looks as if we were 
going to have a regular blizzard.” 


156 Grandpa s Gittle Girls 


“ The fish are biting finely,” said Jimmie regretfully. 
“ I’ve got forty good ones now.” 

“ That’s enough to carry,” said Miss Abitha. 

By the time they had finished their luncheon, put 
out the fire, and were ready to start the storm had 
begun in good earnest. Not only did the snow come 
so thick and fast that they could see but a short dis- 
tance ahead, but a cold wind swept fiercely across the 
river. 

“ I’ve got to get those fish, and my hooks,” said 
Jimmie, as they started up the river toward home. 

“ I don’t know as it will be best, Jimmie, to keep 
as far out from shore as that,” responded Miss Abitha. 
“ If you should slip or get your foot into one of those 
holes you might perish before I could find you. Don’t 
you think you had better give up the fish than take 
that risk ? ” 

But Jimmie was sure that he could easily get the 
string of fish, and his hooks, and Miss Abitha con- 
sented. 

“I will keep straight up toward the point,” she 
said, “and wait for you there,” and Jimmie struck 
off toward the middle of the river and was hid by 
the blinding snow, that now seemed to be coming in 
sheets. 


At School 


157 


Miss Abitha had gone but a short distance when 
she realized that, in spite of the active exercise, she 
was becoming chilled through. Her fingers ached 
with the cold, and as the snow struck her face it 
stung like tiny sparks of fire. They were at least 
three miles from Pine Tree farm, and the journey 
hardl}^ begun. Miss Abitha remembered that their 
way led across several bleak fields before reaching the 
road, and blamed herself that she had not taken notice 
of the weather conditions earlier in the day. 

Just then she heard a faint call, and stopped to 
listen. It was surely some one calling her name, and 
came from the direction Jimmie had taken. 

Miss Abitha did not hesitate a moment but struck 
boldly out toward the fishing ground calling out, 
“Jimmie!” as she went. 

The boy’s voice answered her, and in spite of the 
storm, she made her way swiftly toward the sound. 

“ Look out, Miss Abitha ! ” she heard ; “ keep off to 
the right, or you’ll catch your snow-shoe in one of the 
holes. That’s what I’ve done.” 

Jimmie had secured his string of fish, and was 
groping about for his hooks when a sudden wrench 
threw him sideways. The point of his snow-shoe had 
caught in a hole, and although the boy made every 


ij8 Grandpa s Gittle Girls 

effort to work his foot clear he found it impossible; 
and then his calls had brought Miss Abitha to the 
rescue. 

“Don’t break my snow-shoe or we’ll never get 
home,” said the boy, as Miss Abitha with numbed 
fingers endeavored to set him free. It did not take 
long to release his foot ; and in a few moments Jimmie 
had rescued the snow-shoe, and, still clinging to the 
string of fish, was ready to start again. 

“It’s awful cold,” he said as they carefully made 
their way toward the point. “ I began to think I’d 
freeze before I could get my foot out.” 

They moved on as rapidly as they could, but both 
realized that they were making slow progress. It was 
rapidly growing dark, and a new fear took possession 
of Miss Abitha : what if they should lose their way 
in crossing those bleak fields, and wander about in 
the night and storm until utterly exhausted. 

“Miss Abitha,” exclaimed Jimmie suddenly, “the 
wind has changed or else we are going the wrong 
way.” 

Miss Abitha stopped. Jimmie was right. The 
wind which had swept so strongly against them was 
now at their back. 

“ Jimmie,” and Miss Abitha’s voice sounded rather 



“ DON’T BE FRIGHTENED,” HE SAID 



At School 


159 

frightened, “ we have been going straight down the 
river ever since I found you.” 

“ Then we must turn back,” said Jimmie bravely ; 
but he realized their danger as well as Miss Abitha 
did. They were lost on the river, without knowing 
in which direction their course should lie. 

Jimmie reached out and grasped Miss Abitha’s hand. 

“ Don’t be frightened,” he said. “ We’ll keep right 
on up to the point, and when we get there we can 
make a fire. There's trees there and I’ve got matches.” 

At Pine Tree farm the coming of the storm had 
been watched with but little anxiety. 

“ Abitha will start in good season,” said Grandfather 
Newman ; “ we needn’t worry.” But as the storm 
grew worse Mr. Eben Bean and Mr. Henry Newman 
decided to drive down toward the river. 

“ It will be hard work facing this wind,” declared 
Mr. Bean. ‘‘ And I reckon they will be glad of a ride 
home.” So they started at about the time when Miss 
Abitha had helped Jimmie out of the fishing hole. 
As they had to follow the road it took them some 
time to reach the river. 

“ I’m afraid they have snow shoed across the fields,” 
said Mr. Newman as they came out on the wooded 
point. “ We ought to have met them before this.” 


i6o Grandpa s Git tie Girls 

While be was speaking Mr. Bean sprang from the 
sleigh. 

“We must try to start some sort of a bonfire here,” 
he exclaimed. “ They may be on the river now, not 
knowing what direction to take.” 

The anxiety of Mr. Bean made Henry Hewman 
hasten to join him, and the two men worked with a 
will, breaking off such branches as they could reach 
and heaping them about a white birch-tree. It was 
hard work, but after a while a blaze was started, and 
shielded and encouraged the fire soon blazed up 
brightly and sent shadowy gleams of light out across 
the river. 

It was Jimmie who first noticed the blaze, and he 
called out at the top of his voice, “ Help ! Help ! ” 
Miss Abitha’s voice echoed his. 

“ Hear that ! ” said Mr. Bean. “ They are on the 
river, and not a great way off either,” and before 
Mr. Newman could prevent him the old man had 
dashed through the snow in the direction of the 
voices. 

Mr. Newman replenished and guarded the fire, and 
it was not long before Mr. Bean, Miss Abitha and 
Jimmie, the latter still clinging to his string of fish, 
were warming themselves before it. Then the fisher- 


At School 


i6i 


men were warmly wrapped in the fur robes, and the 
horses started for home at their best pace. 

“I don’t know as I shall ever get you brought up, 
Abitha,” declared her father as he drew the furs more 
closely about her. “ You’re the most troublesome 
child 1 ever had.” 


CHAPTEB XYI 


MYRTLE green’s SURPRISE 

“ I WISH you had written a play, Sister, the way 
Myrtle Green did,” Lamb announced one morning, as 
the two sisters walked across to the school building. 

“ What for ? ” asked Constance. 

“ Well, because mother and everybody at Pine Tree 
farm would have been so pleased about it, and because 
grandfather would have had it printed and had your 
picture in it just the way Myrtle Green’s father 
did.” 

‘‘I shouldn’t know what to write about,” declared 
Constance, but the more she thought about it the 
more desirous she became of being the author for the 
next “ J. F. F.” Club entertainment. 

“ Rose,” she said one day when the two friends 
were in the library together, “you remember what 
grandfather told us about Jimmie Woody ear killing 
the lynx ? ” 

“ Why, yes, of course ! ” responded Rose. 

“ And I read you Miss Abitha’s letter about their 
162 


At School 


163 

adventure on the river. IS’ovv,” continued Constance, 
“ I want to ask you something very important.” 

Rose nodded smilingly. “ Go ahead,” she replied. 
“Well,” said Constance slowly, “I want to ask you 
if you think I could write a play for the ‘ J. F. F.’ 
Club about Jimmie and Miss Abitha ? ” 

“ Of course you could ! ” responded Rose enthusi- 
astically. “ It will be just the thing. I can be Miss 
Abitha and you can be Jimmie. You can have the 
last scene your father and Mr. Bean rescuing us from 
the storrn. It will be great. But you will have to 
begin right away. I don’t suppose you would want 
me to help you write it ? ” concluded Rose. 

“ Oh, Rose ! Would you ? That would be lovely,” 
exclaimed Constance, and that very morning the 
Easter entertainment of the “ J. F. F.’s ” was decided 
upon. It was to be a play in three acts by Miss Rose 
Mason and Constance Hewman, entitled “ Saved from 
the Storm.” The girls became much interested in it. 
They decided that the first act should represent the 
kitchen of a farmhouse, and an anxious mother awaiting 
the return of her brave son who had gone in pursuit of a 
lynx which had been destroying their chickens. While 
she is telling of her anxiety as to her son’s safety the 
door opens, and the brave boy appears, with his gun in 


164 Grandpa s L.ittle Girls 

one hand and dragging the dead lynx with the 
other. 

“ What will we have for a lynx ? ” exclaimed Con- 
stance, anxiously, when this point was reached. 

“ Oh, we will have to make one,” replied Eose. 
“We can cut a great big cat-shaped thing out of 
black cambric and stuff it with excelsior so it will 
look like some kind of a strange animal.” 

“You think of everything, Kose,” declared Con- 
stance admiringly. 

The second act was to represent the mother receiv- 
ing word that a sister was ill, and deciding that she 
must cross the river to visit her. The boy is to ac- 
company her, so they bid the other members of the 
family farewell and start out. 

The third and final act was to represent a snow- 
storm, the mother and son nearly overcome by cold, 
and rescued by the father and a neighbor. 

The play was submitted for Miss Wilson’s approval, 
the actors selected, and the meetings of the “ J. F. F.” 
were now given over to rehearsals of “ Saved from 
the Storm.” Lamb was to be the little daughter of 
the family, and was to appear in every act. 

“ I guess you are the smartest girl in this school. 
Sister,” she declared. “You won the basket-ball 


At School 165 

game, Kose Mason picked you out for her friend, and 
now you have written a play.” 

“ I’m not half so smart as Kose,” responded Con- 
stance loyally ; “ and as for writing a play it’s Kose 
who has really planned it all. I only furnished the 
plot.” 

“ Well, I guess the plot is all there is to any play,” 
said Lamb firmly ; “ and I guess Miss Abitha and 
Jimmie will be proud enough when they hear about it.” 

“ Eunice ! ” exclaimed Constance. “ You know Kose 
is going home with us vacation time.” 

Lamb nodded. 

‘‘ Well, I’ve thought of something we can do as a 
surprise for the Pine Tree farm people. You know 
what a lovely big shed grandfather has ; why can’t 
we get Jimmie to build a little platform in one end of 
it, and put in chairs, and then we will give ‘ Saved 
from the Storm.’ Jimmie and Miss Abitha can take 
part, and Mary Woody ear, too, and we will ask the 
Woody ear family to all come and see it. I know 
grandfather would like it.” 

“ Of course he would,” agreed Lamb ; “ and Mary 
Woody ear would think it was lovely to^be in a real 
play. Oh, Sister, won’t you be glad when it is really 
time to go home for all summer ? ” 


i66 


Grandpa s Gittle Girls 

Constance nodded. “ Yes, I will,” she replied ; 
“ and when I do get home, Eunice, I am going to tell 
mother how sorry I am that we ran off to that old 
schoolhouse. I wanted to tell her at Christmas time, 
but I got so ashamed whenever I thought about it that 
I couldn’t.” 

“ I’ll tell her, too,” said Lamb ; “ but. Sister, how 
were we to know that school would be like this ? ” 

“We ought to have known that our mother and 
father knew, if we didn’t,” replied Constance firmly. 

“ I’ve learned so many things,” said Lamb, with a 
little sigh. “ I thought I could remember and tell 
them all to grandmother, but I guess I shall have to 
leave out some.” 

As the time for the Easter entertainment drew near 
Constance noticed a change in Myrtle Green’s manner. 
Myrtle had always been so ready to join in all the plans 
for good times, and had often explained the ways of 
the school to Constance, and had been kind to Lamb ; 
but gradually she began to avoid them both and at 
last hardly spoke to them. 

“I don’t know what is the matter,” Constance told 
Kose Mason ; “ but Myrtle acts as if she couldn’t bear 
to see me around.” 


“ She will have to tell the ‘ J. E. F.’s ’ about it,” 


At School 


167 


responded Rose. “ Don’t you remember that one of 
our by-laws is that every member of the club must be 
loyal to every other member ? She will have to give 
some good reason to the club for not speaking to you, 
or else be fined.” 

“ Oh, dear,” wailed Constance ; “ that will make her 
really hate me, and I don’t believe she does now ; she’s 
only cross about something.” 

“ Do you want to ask her about it ? ” suggested Rose. 

Constance shook her head. “ I know she wouldn’t 
tell me,” she answered ; “ and I don’t believe she would 
listen to me long enough for me to ask her.” 

“ I don’t want to interfere,” said Rose ; “ but I think 
I know what the trouble is. It’s on account of our 
play.” 

“ Why, Myrtle wrote a play herself ! ” exclaimed 
Constance in surprise. 

Rose nodded. “ Yes,” she responded ; “ that’s it. 
You see her play was really so good, and her father 
was so pleased with it, and we all had our parts so well 
that Myrtle thought we would want to give it again at 
Easter, and perhaps ask the high school girls to come. 
I heard one of the girls say that Myrtle’s father and 
mother were coming at Easter time because they 
wanted to see the play.” 


i68 Grandpa s Little Girls 


“ She’s a selfish thing ! ” exclaimed Constance. 
“ And if she don’t want to speak to me she needn’t ; I 
guess she can’t write all the plays.” 

Kose looked rather sober, but she made no reply for 
a moment, then she said slowly, “ Perhaps it does 
seem selfish in Myrtle, but I have a plan that would 
make everything all right.” 

“ What is it ? ” asked Constance eagerly. 

When Kose finished explaining the plan Constance’s 
face wore a puzzled and unhappy look. 

“ It seems to me, Kose, that you like Myrtle the 
best,” she said slowly, and then as she looked into her 
friend’s face she exclaimed, “ oh, I don’t mean that, 
dear Kose, but I don’t believe there ever was another 
girl in the whole world as good as you are, and if you 
think that is the way to do, why I’ll do it.” 

“ I knew you would want to do the right thing,” 
said Kose. 

“ I think this is something more than just ‘ right,’ ” 
declared Constance with a little laugh. ‘‘ I think it’s 
something fine.” 

“ All the better,” responded Kose, it isn’t every 
day we get a chance to do really fine things, is it ? ” 

“ And it was such a job to stuff that old lynx,” said 
Constance. 


At School 


169 


^ Kose laughed. “We will have to see the girls and 
tell them about the change,” she said, “ and caution 
them not to let Myrtle guess a word about it ; and 
we had better tell Miss Wilson right away, so that 
she can send word to Myrtle’s father to be sure and 
be here for the Easter entertainment.” 

“ Won’t Myrtle be surprised,” exclaimed Constance, 
“ when the curtain goes up on the first act of ‘ Cousin 
Jane’ instead of ‘Saved From the Storm’!” For 
Rose’s plan was to give up their own play and give 
Myrtle’s instead, and, although Constance agreed to 
it, she felt that it was very unselfish. 

Miss Wilson listened to the girls’ story with much 
interest. She knew of Myrtle’s disappointment, and 
I had noticed her manner toward Constance but had 
J not thought it best to interfere. 

“ I think I have great reason to be proud of you 
[ both,” she said ; “ and I should never have suggested 

; such an act of pure unselfishness. It is the very thing 

i to do, but I am afraid poor Myrtle will feel very much 

\ ashamed of herself.” 

That very night a letter was sent to Pine Tree farm 
I telling Constance’s mother the whole story, and 

T' adding many words of praise as to the decision that 

Rose and Constance had made. 


lyo Grandpa s Little Girls 

Grandfather Newman read the letter approvingly. 
“ I guess that’s a pretty good school,” he announced 
as he finished the letter. “ Miss Wilson seems to ap- 
preciate our ‘ Peter.’ ” 

As for Myrtle it seemed to her as if all the girls in 
the school were in league against her. There were so 
many private rehearsals of the Easter entertainment. 
Then, too, she heard that the high school girls had 
been invited to be present, and she knew how disap- 
pointed her father and mother would be to have some 
other play than ‘‘ Cousin Jane” given. She began to 
avoid her schoolmates, to go off on solitary walks, 
and to think of herself as a very much abused person. 

It had been decided that Lamb should take Myrtle’s 
part in the play, and the little girl felt very pleased 
and important over the fact. 

At last the night of the entertainment came. Mr. 
and Mrs. Green had arrived, and Myrtle had bright- 
ened a little in the pleasure of seeing them, but she 
looked forward to an unhapp}’' evening. She saw the 
high school girls arrive, and noticed all the bustle 
and excitement of the ‘‘ J. F. F.’s,” and felt shut out 
from all the old pleasures and good times. 

“ They are all hateful and selfish,” she thought to 
herself. “ Even Kose Mason and Constance, who pre- 


At School 


171 


tended to like me, are so stuck-up over their own play 
that they have forgotten all about mine,” and she 
entered the hall with a very bitter spirit toward her 
friends. 

“ Well I Well ! ” exclaimed Mr. Green, as he looked 
up and saw “ Cousin Jane,” in big letters of evergreen 
on the walls of the hall, “ what does that mean ? ” 

“ I don’t know,” murmured Myrtle, but some way 
the sight of the name of her play comforted her; it 
showed that some of the girls remembered, she 
thought. Kose and Constance had worked all the 
afternoon to put up the letters, but Myrtle was to find 
that out later on. 

The room filled rapidly. Miss Wilson sat beside 
Mr. and Mrs. Green, and when the curtain went up 
she watched Myrtle closely. 

“ My play ! ” gasped the little girl. 

At the end there was a cry of “ Author I Author ! ” 
and it was a trembling and red-eyed girl who, led by 
Kose Mason, appeared on the little stage and made her 
best bow. For Myrtle had had time to think, and she 
was not very proud of herself. She realized that Kose 
and Constance had been willing to give up the pleas- 
ure of seeing their own play performed, to relinquish 
all the results of their hard work, rather than have 


172 Grandpa s Gittle Girls 

Myrtle unhappy and disappointed; and it seemed to 
her they must despise any girl as small-minded and 
selfish as she felt herself to be. 

Constance and Kose both hurried toward Myrtle as 
soon as the entertainment was over. 

“ Wern’t you surprised, Myrtle ? ” exclaimed Con- 
stance. 

“ Oh, Constance, I have acted so meanly to you,” 
sobbed Myrtle ; “ I should think you and Hose would 
hate me.” 

“ Well, we don’t,” interrupted Rose. “ You are a 
‘J. F. F.’ you know. Myrtle, and that’s a tie that 
binds,” and Myrtle was soon persuaded to wipe her 
eyes and enjoy all the pleasant things that their 
guests had to say about “ Cousin Jane.” 

“ Myrtle,” whispered Lamb later on that evening, 
“ it was lovely to have your play, and when we get to 
Pine Tree farm why then we can have ‘ Saved From 
the Storm.’ ” 

“ I wish I could see it,” responded Myrtle ; “ I’m 
sure it is better than mine.” 

“ Well,” said Lamb thoughtfully, “ I s’pose it is, but 
yours is real good. Myrtle.” 


CHAPTEE XYII 


AN OVERTURNED BOAT 

“ OHj girls ! ” exclaimed Myrtle one day toward the 
last of April, as she overtook Constance and Kose on 
their way to the lake, “ what do you suppose Miss 
Wilson is going to do?” and without waiting for 
their answer she continued rapidly, “she is going to 
let us have our boat picnic next Saturday. The boats 
are being looked over and put in order now.” 

“ What is a ‘ boat picnic ’ ? ” questioned Constance. 

“ You weren’t here last spring, so this will be some- 
thing new,” responded Kose. “You tell her what a 
boat picnic is, Myrtle.” 

“ It’s the nicest time of the whole year,” declared 
Myrtle, enthusiastically. “In the first place, we all 
have to get up early enough to see the sun rise.” 

“I don’t call that a good time,” interrupted Con- 
stance laughingly, but Myrtle continued, “We don’t 
see it rise from our rooms, we have to be up and 
dressed and down at the boat landing, and the girls 
that miss the sunrise miss the picnic.” 

“Yes,” confirmed Rose, “and they miss the very 

173 


174 


Grandpa s Lillie Girls 

best breakfast of the year, too ; for when we get back 
to the house after the sunrise there is always a sur- 
prise for breakfast; something that we are sure to 
like. Sometimes it is broiled chicken, and sometimes 
it is buckwheat cakes and maple syrup, but it’s always 
something good.” 

“ And as soon as breakfast is over,” went on Myrtle, 
“ we all march back to the lake and get in the boats 
and the picnic begins. Wouldn’t you rather wait 
until Saturday, Constance, and see what it is yourself, 
instead of having us tell you about it ? ” 

“ Why, I don’t know,” answered Constance ; “ per- 
haps it will be more fun.” So the description of the 
boat picnic was not finished, and Constance looked 
forward eagerly to Saturday. She talked it over 
with Lamb and they both wondered if it would be at 
all like Miss Abitha’s picnics. 

Early Saturday morning Sister was awake, and by 
various shakes and calls aroused Lamb to the impor- 
tance of getting up. 

‘^IN'obody has called us,” objected Lamb sleepily. 

‘‘And nobody will,” replied Constance. “This is 
the one morning in the year when they don’t ring a 
bell ; if the girls don’t care enough about the fun to 
get up, why then they miss it,” and Constance ener- 


At School 


»75 

getically began her morning toilet, quickly followed 
by Lamb. 

“I wish I could row,” said Constance. “I heard 
Eose say that a boat race was always part of the 
picnic.” 

“You can learn,” replied Lamb; “and then next 
year your boat will win the race.” 

Constance laughed. “ I can’t win everything,” she 
responded. 

“ Oh, yes, you can,” declared Lamb confidently. 

“ Myrtle Green says that you have more brains than 
any girl in school.” 

“It isn’t brains that wins a boat race,” said Con- • 
stance ; “ it’s practice and muscle.” 

“Well, I guess it means just the same,” decided 
Lamb. 

Every girl in school was at the boat landing in 
time to see the sun rise, and they all had excellent 
appetites for the tempting breakfast which was ready 
for them on their return to the house. This morning 
it was broiled trout, the first of the season, and Con- 
stance decided they were well worth getting up for. 

The three boats were drawn up at the landing. 
Miss Wilson was to steer one boat, and the two other 
boats were each in charge of a teacher. Constance 


176 Grandpa s Gittle Girls 


and Lamb were both to go in Miss Wilson’s boat, 
which was rowed by Myrtle Green, Rose Mason, and 
two of the older girls. 

The teachers and oarsmen were all dressed in their 
gymnasium suits, and each girl handled her oar in a 
very skilful manner. Miss Wilson’s boat took the 
lead, heading directly up the lake, and followed by 
the two other boats. 

“ I believe that we are headed for Arbutus point,” 
declared Myrtle, and Miss Wilson nodded in assent. 

It was the first time that Constance and Lamb had 
been on the lake and they looked about in delight. 
The morning was soft and warm, and the sky blue 
and without a cloud. On one side of the lake was a 
beautiful grove of pine trees, and on the other side 
smooth fields sloped down to the water. There was 
a pleasant fragrance of spring in the air, and the girls 
called back and forth from one boat to another. Far 
up the lake Constance could see the point of land, 
known as Arbutus point, from the quantity of that 
beautiful flower which blossomed there every spring. 

In less than an hour they had reached the point, 
landed their lunch baskets and wraps and were ready 
for the first pleasure of the day. Constance and 
Lamb were surprised to see Myrtle and Rose pre- 


At School 


177 

paring to climb two tall trees that stood in a little 
opening near the lake. 

“We put up the swing,” Kose explained, and the 
girls watched their two schoolmates admiringly as 
they went up from limb to limb, sure-footed and un- 
afraid, and made fast the strong ropes for the swing. 

While they were doing this Miss Wilson and the 
two teachers were looking over a number of fishing- 
rods, and selecting hooks and bait. Arbutus Creek, 
which emptied into the lake near the point, was a 
well-stocked trout stream, and the teachers, accom- 
panied by one or two girls, started off promising to 
secure enough fish for dinner. 

This left the greater number of the girls on the 
point with perfect freedom to do exactly as they 
pleased. Several strolled off through the beautiful 
woods, the swing was in constant demand, and 
Myrtle, Kose and Constance walked along the sandy 
beach. 

About two hundred yards from the point a large 
log of wood had been anchored. 

Myrtle pointed it out to Constance. “ That is for 
the race,” she explained. We row out to that log, 
round it and back to the point, and the boat that wins 
gets a prize. Last year the prize was a box of candy 


178 Grandpa s L,ittle Girls 


for each of the winners. Of course we don’t know 
what it will be this year.” 

“I wish I could row,” said Constance. 

“ Why don’t you ? ” responded Myrtle. “ Come on, 
now is a good time to begin ; I’ll show you how.” 

Kose decided to continue her walk alone, but Myrtle 
and Constance returned to where the boats were 
fastened. Myrtle pushed off the smaller of the three 
boats, Constance sprang in, took her seat, and was 
ready for her first lesson in seamanship. 

“You want to hold your oar this way,” directed 
Myrtle. “ Don’t dip it down too deep or you’ll ‘ catch 
a crab ’ ; just put it down in the water, lift it up so,” 
and Myrtle illustrated how simple an art it was to use 
an oar correctly. 

“ What makes the boat go so one-sided ? ” asked 
Constance after a few uneven strokes. 

“It’s because I row so much stronger than you 
do,” explained Myrtle. “You see I pull you right 
around.” 

At this Constance made a mighty effort to put more 
force into her stroke, and bent so far back that she lost 
her balance and went over backward into the bot- 
tom of the boat. Her grasp on the oar gave way, 
and off went the oar into the water. 


At School 


179 

Myrtle’s stroke sent the boat round in a half-circle 
before she realized her friend’s predicament. 

“ Oh, Myrtle ! I can’t get up,” wailed Constance. 
“ I’m all wedged in.” 

“ I’ll help you,” announced Myrtle, and pulling her 
oar in to what she believed a safe position, she crawled 
over the seat, took a firm hold of Constance’s hands and 
pulled vigorously. 

Constance struggled to help herself, and both the 
girls forgot the swaying boat, and the many times they 
had been cautioned to be as careful as possible in 
changing seats. The boat rocked beneath them, and 
as Constance lurched toward Myrtle both the girls 
bent too much toward the right and in an instant 
were in the water. 

The boat quickly righted itself, and Constance was 
near enough to get a grasp on the side. She held on 
tightly, and looked for Myrtle who came spluttering 
noisily up on the farther side of the boat. “ I’m all 
right,” Myrtle called out. “ I can swim. I’ll be in the 
boat in a minute ; you hold on.” 

Kose had noticed that there was some trouble in 
the boat, and had run swiftly to the landing, pushed 
off a boat, and rowed rapidly toward her friends. It 
was fortunate that she had acted so quickly, for Con- 


i8o Grandpa s Gittle Girls 

stance had become frightened and in struggling to get 
into the boat had upset it and was now making vain 
efforts to clamber up on its slippery bottom. Myrtle 
was swimming toward her, but did not know how to 
be of help. 

“ Constance,” called Rose, “ just keep your hands on 
the boat, and keep perfectly still,” and at the sound of 
her friend’s quiet voice Constance became quiet. 

Rose rowed up beside the overturned boat and, ex- 
plaining to Constance the necessity of being as careful 
as possible, helped her into her own boat. 

“Now, Myrtle,” she called, “can’t we manage to 
get that boat righted and tow it ashore ? ” 

“ Of course we can,” declared Myrtle, and the 
wisdom of Miss Wilson’s practical lessons in swimming, 
and what to do in similar emergencies, were well 
proven, for Myrtle and Rose soon righted the over- 
turned boat, rescued the floating oars, and in a short 
time they were all safely on shore. 

“You girls are so wet, you must get out of those 
dripping clothes,” insisted Rose. Fortunately there 
was an abundance of warm shawls, and they were soon 
rid of their soaked clothing and warmly wrapped up, 
while Rose started a fire on the beach and hung their 
things about it to dry. 


At School 


i8i 


The other girls soon gathered about and heard the 
story of the accident. 

“ Then Rose Mason really saved your lives ! ” ex- 
claimed one girl, and although Rose laughed at the 
idea, the other girls were only too ready to add an- 
other heroic quality to their favorite, and insisted upon 
regarding Rose as the heroine of the day. 

When Miss Wilson and her companions returned, 
with a fine string of trout, they were astonished to 
find Myrtle and Constance arrayed, Indian fashion, in 
shawls, and sitting with their bare feet stretched out 
toward the blazing fire. 

They listened to the story of the accident, and 
praised Myrtle and Constance, as well as Rose, for 
showing so much self-control and presence of mind. 

“ I want to learn to swim as soon as I can,” an- 
nounced Constance; “and row, too. Just think, if 
Myrtle had not known how to swim she might have 
been drowned.” 

“You shall learn to swim before vacation time, 
Constance,” replied Miss Wilson ; “ and to manage a 
boat, too. Kow we must have our lunch as soon as 
possible.” 

The trout were cooked on hot, flat rocks over the 
fire, with tiny strips of pork. A coffee kettle was 


i 82 


Grandpa s Gittle Girls 

suspended over the blaze from a forked stick, and 
the girls all said that there never was such a good 
luncheon. 

“Oh, Sister,” whispered Lamb, as she snuggled 
close beside Constance, “ wasn’t it lucky that Rose 
helped you out ? Somehow I’d rather it would be 
Rose than anybody.” 

“ That’s just the way I feel,” responded Constance ; 
“ and, Eunice, I wish I could do something lovely for 
Rose. Just think of all the things she has done for 
me.” 

“ Let’s tell grandfather about it,” suggested Lamb. 
“ You know. Sister, that he always thinks of the nicest 
things to do for everybody.” 

“ Yes, he does,” agreed Constance. 

Directly after lunch Miss Wilson said they must 
start for home. 

“ These girls mustn’t sit about in shawls any longer,” 
she declared, smiling at Myrtle and Constance ; “ and 
I do not dare have them put on their half-dried 
things,” so the picnic came to rather an abrupt ending. 

Lamb and Constance sat close together in the boat, 
and Lamb kept a tight hold of her sister’s hand. 

“I just love Rose Mason,” she declared as they 
landed ; “ and I know what I’m going to do, I’m 


At School 


183 

going to give her my half of our pony ; and I’m going 

to give her my ‘ John Gilpin ’ book, and ” but her 

sister laughingly interrupted the little girl. 

“You will be giving her half of our mother and 
father and Miss Abitha next, Lamb. Don’t give her 
anything yet. We’ll find out something that she 
wants very much, and then when we get to Pine Tree 
farm, we will talk it over with grandfather.” 

“ What do you suppose she would rather have than 
anything in the world ? ” asked Lamb. 

Constance shook her head. “ She hasn’t very 
much,” she replied ; “ she hasn’t any home, or any of 
the things we have, but she seems just as happy and 
never seems to want things. I guess she is different 
from most girls.” 

“ She hasn’t any little watch, has she. Sister ? And 
there’s lots of things that she’d like to have, I know 
she would ! ” declared Lamb ; “ and I want to give 
her everything, don’t you ? ” 

Constance nodded, and looked at Lamb affection- 
ately. “ Most everything,” she replied ; “ but I guess 
I don’t want to give her my sister.” 

That night at the supper-table Miss Wilson an- 
nounced that as the usual boat-race had not taken 
place the prizes would have to be voted upon. 


184 Grandpa s Gittle Girls 

The first prize,” she said, holding up a small pack- 
age, “ is in this box, and I will leave it to you girls to 
decide who is to have it.” 

“ Eose Mason ! ” “ Rose Mason 1 ” exclaimed the 
girls. 

Miss Wilson smiled. “ I think you all feel just as I 
do,” she said ; “ and I am very glad that we agree,” 
and she handed the box to Rose. It contained a small 
gold pin in the shape of an oar, and when Rose fas- 
tened it in her dress, the other girls all exclaimed that 
it was the best prize possible for a boat-race. 

“ There are generally four oarsmen in each boat,” 
Miss Wilson reminded them ; “ so here are three other 
boxes to be voted on.” 

“Myrtle Green,” exclaimed one of the girls, and 
Myrtle opened the little box to find a tiny silver 
anchor. 

Constance could hardly believe it possible that the 
second silver anchor should be declared hers, but she 
was rejoiced to think that her schoolmates wanted her 
to have it. The third anchor was voted to a girl who 
always rowed stroke-oar in one of the boats, and the 
day of the boat picnic ended very happily. 


CHAPTEE XYIII 


ROSE mason’s birthday 

“ So we shall have three girls this summer,” said 
Grandfather Xewmau as he and grandmother talked 
over the home-coming of Sister and Lamb. 

“Yes,” responded Mrs. Xewman ; “and I think we 
are very fortunate. Kose Mason is a girl to be proud 
of.” 

“Just like our ‘Peter,’” declared grandfather 
loyally. 

All the household were looking forward to the 
girls’ arrival. Miss Abitha and Jimmie had made 
plans for an excursion to the camp by the river as 
soon as possible after Sister and Lamb should reach 
home. 

“We shan’t get caught in a snow-storm this time, 
Jimmie,” Miss Abitha had said laughingly ; “ and now 
that Constance can row a boat and Lamb has learned 
to swim, the river will be as safe as dry land.” 

“ I am going to build a boat of my own next winter,” 
said Jimmie. “ There’s a fine cedar tree on my land, 
and your father says that he is sure that I can get 
185 


i86 


Grandpa s L,ittle Girls 

enough timber from it for a boat ; and then when the 
girls come home summers they can have a boat of 
their own.” 

On the morning of the day that Constance, Eunice 
and Rose were to reach home Mr. Eben Bean was 
very busy. The big three-seated wagon was drawn 
into the yard and carefully washed. Then the two 
big horses were groomed and brushed until their 
smooth coats were like silk. Jimmie rubbed up the 
harnesses, and when the team was ready Grandfather 
Rewman regarded it approvingly. 

Mr. Eben Bean was to drive, and young Mrs. New- 
man and Abitha sat beside him on the front seat. 
The middle seat was reserved for the girls, while Mr. 
Henry Newman and grandmother and grandfather 
were to ride on the back seat. Jimmie stood at the 
gate and saw them drive off toward the station. 

“ They are the best folks in the world,” the boy 
thought gratefully, remembering all the kindness they 
had shown to his mother, and their generosity toward 
himself ; “ and I’m going to try and be just like 
Grandfather Newman, and have a nice farm like 
this,” and the boy looked admiringly at the comfort- 
able house and big barns, and thought proudly of his 
own hard-earned acres on the Franklin road. 



THEY TOLD HIM THE STORY 










At School 


187 

Constance and Lamb could hardly wait for a chance 
to tell Grandfather ISTewman about Kose ; and as soon 
as possible after their arrival they managed to get him 
all to themselves and told him the story of Constance’s 
falling into the lake, and of how Kose had come to her 
rescue. 

“And, grandfather,” Constance continued, “that 
isn’t all, either. If it hadn’t been for Kose I should 
have quarreled with Myrtle Green,” and she told 
about the play they had written, and of Kose planning 
to make things smooth with Myrtle by giving up their 
own claim to attention. “ And now, grandfather,” 
urged Lamb, “ we want to do something lovely for 
Kose, and w^e want you to tell us what to do.” 

Grandfather looked very happy as he listened to 
their story. “ I see, I see,” he replied ; “ now we 
must talk this over with your mother and try and find 
out what Kose would like best of all.” Then grand- 
father was silent a moment. “ I think,” he remarked 
slowly, “ that the best thing that ever happened to 
you two girls was when your mother decided to send 
you to Miss Wilson’s school.” 

“ And we were so silly about it,” said Constance. 
“ I didn’t realize how silly we were until I knew Kose 
and Myrtle.” 


i88 Grandpa s Little Girls 

That very night Constance found a chance to tell 
her mother what she had long wanted to say. 

“ Mother,” she exclaimed, as young Mrs. Newman 
went up stairs with her little daughters, “ weren’t you 
awfully ashamed of me when I ran away and didn’t 
want to go to school ? ” 

Mrs. Newman laughed softly. “Not half so 
ashamed then as I am proud now,” she replied. 
“ Kose has been telling me so many pleasant things 
about both my dear girls that I can’t remember they 
ever did anything silly.” 

“We are so sorry, mother, dear,” said Lamb, “ that 
we ran away that time, and we just love to go to 
school, don’t we, Sister ? ” 

“We love coming home a good deal better,” replied 
Constance, giving her mother such a vigorous hug that 
Mrs. Newman declared she understood just how it was 
that Constance won the basket-ball game. 

“We want to give our play right away,” said Con- 
stance the next morning, and Miss Abitha and Jimmie 
both promised to help. 

“ As Jimmie and I are the chief actors,” said Miss 
Abitha, “ I suppose we must begin to learn our parts 
right away.” 

“ Oh, you will know your parts,” declared Con- 


At School 


189 

stance, “because the play is written about your ad- 
ventures.” 

Jimmie looked at the cambric lynx with scorn. 
“ That doesn’t look like anything,” he announced. “ I 
can fix up something that will be a lot more like a 
wild animal than that,” so, with an old buffalo robe 
which Mr. Bean gave him the boy constructed a very 
good imitation of a lynx. 

Little Mary Woodyear was delighted to take part, 
and it was decided to give the play the very next 
week. The platform was built in the shed ; grand- 
mother made a fine drop curtain of green cambric, 
and grandfather made so many benches that Con- 
stance said she believed he had asked the whole village. 

“ Well,” he responded laughingly, “ I have asked 
some of our friends to drive over. I’ve asked the 
Smiths, and the minister and his wife, and the doctor, 
and ” 

“Oh, grandfather! You’ve asked everybody!” 
declared Lamb, and when the evening of the perform- 
ance came it looked as if Lamb was right, for teams 
drove up from all the neighboring farms and the vil- 
lage was well represented. 

The Woodyear family were all there, proud and 
happy over the fact that Jimmie’s adventure with the 


190 Grandpa s Gittle Girls 

lynx and his experience on the river had been put into 
a play. Grandfather Newman beamed upon every- 
body ; and Mr. Eben Bean, looking more like Uncle 
Sam ” than ever, stood at the door and handed each 
newcomer a little printed book. 

“ Kose ! ” exclaimed Constance, “ do you see those 
little books that Mr. Bean is giving everybody ? 
Well, it is our play ! Father has had them printed 
just as Myrtle’s father did hers, with your picture and 
mine on the front page.” 

The play went very well and received much ap- 
plause. Miss Abitha and Jimmie seemed very much 
at home in their parts, and when they were rescued 
from the storm the audience stamped and applauded 
with delight. 

After the play Grandmother Newman invited the 
guests to remain for strawberries and cake, and when 
the evening was over they all declared that it was one 
of the nicest entertainments they had ever attended. 
The doctor was heard to say that he should certainly 
send his daughter to Miss Wilson’s school, and the 
minister praised Kose and Constance. 

“ Isn’t it lovely to have a home like this,” said Rose 
after the visitors had all gone. “ I never used to think 
much about a home, but since I have known Con- 


At School 


191 

stance and Lamb I have decided that I’d rather have 
a home than anything in the world.” 

The two sisters looked at each other. Now they 
knew what Kose wanted, but how could they give it 
to her ? 

“Wouldn’t you rather have a little gold watch?” 
asked Lamb anxiously. 

This made both Kose and Constance laugh, and 
nothing more was said about their friend’s wish. 

“ You can have Jet for your own pony while you 
are here, Kose,” Constance said ; “and you needn’t think 
that you must ask either Lamb or me to drive with 
you. You can go alone, or take anybody.” 

“I could take the Woody ear children sometimes,” 
suggested Kose. 

“ Yes,” agreed Constance, and so began a happy 
time for the little Woody ears, for whatever Kose did 
Constance and Lamb wanted to do, and it became a 
custom to include the Woody ear children in their 
drives and picnics. 

When the day came for the excursion to the river 
Jimmie and Mary Woodyear, in the pony cart, drove 
behind the big wagon. Miss Abitha showed the girls 
where the bonfire had been built on the night when 
she and Jimmie had so nearly perished in the storm. 


192 Grandpa s Gittle Girls 

Rose, Constance and Lamb had brought their bath- 
ing suits and, although Grandmother Newman insisted 
that they must not go out beyond where they could 
walk safely ashore, they could all see that the girls 
were perfectly at home in the water, and could swim 
well. 

“ I wouldn’t mind falling out of a boat now,” an- 
nounced Constance ; “ for I should know just what to 
do.” 

“ Well, you learned that at school,” replied Miss 
Abitha, and Constance agreed promptly. 

Mary Woody ear watched them admiringly. ‘‘ They 
can do everything, can’t they, Jimmie ? ” she said. 

Jimmie nodded. “ ’Most everything,” he responded, 
“ and they will teach you to do things too.” 

“ Of course they will,” declared Constance, who had 
overheard the conversation. “ The very next time I 
come to the river Mary can come with me and take 
her first lesson in swimming.” 

“ I guess there’s other things she’d like to learn, 
too,” ventured Jimmie. 

“ What ? ” responded Constance eagerly, sitting 
down close beside Mary. 

“ She’d like to learn things out of books, wouldn’t 
you, Mary ? ” 


At School 


193 


“ I’d love to teach her,” said Constance, and before 
the talk was finished it was agreed that Mary should 
come every day to Pine Tree farm and that Constance 
should be her teacher. 

“ There ! ” exclaimed Jimmie as he and Mary rode 
home that night. “ Wasn’t that the nicest picnic that 
ever was ? And aren’t the Newmans the nicest folks ?” 

“ Yes ! ” replied his small sister. “And I’m going 
to be just like them.” 

“ So am I,” declared Jimmie. 

“ Sister,” said Lamb one day toward the end of the 
summer, “vacation is almost over and we haven’t 
given Kose a single thing; and every time we ask 
grandfather about it he just smiles and nods ; and now 
her birthday comes next week and nobody seems to 
be planning for it,” and the little girl was evidently 
nearly ready to cry. 

“ Grandmother is making her a lovely birthday 
cake,” replied Constance ; “ and it is going to have a 
big sugar rose on top of it.” 

“ What’s a cake ? ” wailed Lamb. 

“ And Miss Abitha is making her the prettiest pink 
muslin dress,” continued Constance. 

“Well, everybody has muslin dresses. And ivhat 
are we going to give her ? We know what she wants 


194 


Grandpa s Gittle Girls 

most of anything, but we can’t get it for her. I do 
wish she wanted a watch. I know father would buy 
one for her,” declared Lamb. 

“ Well, Eunice, I’ll tell you. Father has bought her 
a watch. And it’s got a rose engraved on the back, 
and on the inside of the case is ‘ Rose from Constance 
and Eunice.’ You ask father to show it to you.” 

‘‘ Goody ! ” exclaimed the little girl, and her face 
brightened. “But that isn’t giving her what she 
wants most,” she concluded rather dismally. 

“ My first birthday cake ! ” Rose exclaimed happily, 
as they all gathered about the table for her birthday 
supper. 

“ And your first watch,” said Lamb, slipping a slen- 
der chain over Rose’s neck and letting the tiny watch 
swing in front of her. Then, after Rose had admired 
her new gift. Grandfather Newman got up from his 
seat at the foot of the table and came over and stood 
between Rose and Constance. 

“Now,” he said very quietly, “ I am going to make 
you a present, my dear Rose, and I hope you will ac- 
cept it. I am going to present you with a grandfather 
and a grandmother and a home. You are always to 
feel that you have a share in Pine Tree farm, that you 
are just as welcome here as either Constance or Lamb ; 


At School 


195 

that this is your home,” and he leaned over and kissed 
Rose. 

“ There ! ” exclaimed Lamb. “ Now Rose has what 
she wanted most in the world, a real home.” 

“ And all because you came to Miss Wilson’s school,” 
replied Rose. 

Constance looked at her friend. “ It almost fright- 
ens me,” she said soberly, “ when I think that we 
didn’t want to go to school. Just think of all we 
would have missed ! And missing you. Rose, would 
have been the worst of all.” 

Rose laughed happily. “ This is my best birthday 
yet,” she said. “ I don’t believe any other girl ever 
had everything she wanted given to her on her six- 
teenth birthday,” and she turned a grateful look 
toward the happy faces that regarded her with so 
much affection. 

“ And all because Sister and I went to school,” an- 
nounced Lamb, so seriously that they all laughed at 
the little girl’s sober face. 


MAY 6 1908 
















